1865.] GEOLOGY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 317 



along the southern side of the first Loch Lomond Lake. They 

 consist of purplish-red trappeau and quartzose sandstone, but are 

 not well exposed. Although probably belonging, as above stated, 

 it is possible that these rocks may represent the upper member of 

 the Blomsbury group, hereafter to be described. 



" Southward of the above, along the line of Ratcliffe's Millstream, 

 the exposures are more clearly visible, and the Coldbrook rocks 

 may be again distinctly recognized. Nominally underlying the 

 Saint John group, which is a newer series, they here lie above the 

 latter, both formations having been reversed by a folding of the 

 strata. They consist at this place of purple sandstone, greenish- 

 grey, red and purple sandy shales. To the eastward the same mem- 

 ber appears crossing Handford's and Harding's Brooks, on the old 

 road from Quaco to Sussex. 



" Returning for a moment to the neighborhood of Loch Lomond 

 we have next to consider the rocks of this group, occurring to the 

 southward of the fault and downthrow at the Negro settlement. 

 Near the last named place, and resting upon a ridge of eruptive 

 syenite, Mr. Matthew has observed a series of compact slaty traps, 

 with beds and dykes of greenstone, these in turn being overlaid by 

 a broad band of white and pink felspathic and silicious slates. 

 Upon them again repose a series of heavy ash-slates and amygdal- 

 oidal traps, forming the northern side of the valley of Black River. 

 On the southern side of the latter, beds of the Saint John group 

 appear. 



" In the sequence of volcanic sediments detailed above, a close re- 

 semblance is apparent to the similar succession already given on 

 the north side of Loch Lomond. The same sequence is also appa- 

 rent along the old road to Quaco, being especially noticeable in the 

 occurrence in each of fine pink felspathic quartzites, succeedino- 

 bluish, pink and grey porphyritic slates. 



PRIMORDIAL FOSSILS. 



"St. John Group.— Age.— The question of age in the Saint 

 John series, is one of great importance, throwing light, as it does 

 upon the origin of all the associated groups. It has been our for- 

 tune to discover facts which leave this question no longer doubtful. 



" It has already been remarked, when describing the character of 

 this series as developed in the city of Saint John, that the remains 

 of a lingula, an animal related to our modern shell-fish, had been 

 found to characterize in considerable numbers some of the sandy 

 beds, but that they were too imperfectly preserved, and too indeci- 



