90 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vi. 



and of the related phenomena of striation, will naturally form the 

 subject of this paper. 



Of the Triassic period some few monuments still remain in 

 Southern New Brunswick. Scattered patches of red sandstone, 

 resting unconformably upon the Coal Measures in the eastern 

 part of Saint John County bear witness to the former existence 

 of an extensive basin of these rocks, which once occupied the 

 Bay of Fundy depression and extended eastward into the area 

 occupied by the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. These 

 soft red rocks are monuments also of the enormous amount of 

 denudation which the region underwent in subsequent ages ; for 

 it is only where they have been protected by ridges of hard meta- 

 morphic strata, or by the capping of basalt with which they are 

 covered at a number of places, that any vestiges of these soft 

 sandstones remain, around the Bay above named. Between the 

 epoch of the Trias and the glacial period long ages elapsed which, 

 except in the wearing away of the older formations, are not known 

 to have left in Acadia any indications of their passage. During 

 this interval the deposition of the Oolite, Chalk, and Tertiary 

 formations was proceeding in Europe, and extensive accumulations 

 were spread over wide areas in North America. They are to be 

 found on both slopes of the Alleghanies and the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. 



The fossil fruits of Brandon, Yt., and the remains buried in 

 the crumbling cliiFs of Martha's Vineyard off the Southern coast 

 of Massachusetts prove that a subtropical climate prevailed in 

 this part of America during a part of the Tertiary Age. That 

 such climatic conditions existed here at a period geologically so 

 recent, would, to one who considers only the present range of 

 temperature, seem highly improbable ; but that this was the case 

 is abundantly shown by the geological discoveries in the western 

 part ol the continent and in Iceland, where the remains of plants 

 and animals of these intervening ages have been found. Not 

 only does the fauna indicate the prevalence of a mild temperature 

 in high latitudes during this period, but the character of the veg- 

 etation, in a great part of British America, was such as is now 

 to be met with only in subtropical and warm temperate regions. 

 Palms, cinnamon trees, and magnolias are known to have grown 

 on the Upper Missouri and in British Columbia, and the genus 

 Sequoia, to which belong the giant trees of California, with many 

 species of hardwood (deciduous) trees as fiir north as Iceland. 



