1869.] MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 327 



England, and lie between the unaltered Silurian of New York on 

 the one hand and the New Brunswick coal-field on the other. 



Dr. Gesner, who made a geological survey between 1838 and 

 1842, recognized granitic ridges on two of these spurs, and spoke 

 of the slates in the central part of the province as Cambrian, and 

 described others near the bay of Fundy as Silurian. Dr. James 

 Robb adopted substantially these views. The classification was 

 based upon the highly altered character of the rocks and the 

 paucity or entire absence of organic remains. About the year 

 1858, Mr. G. F. Matthew, from certain further examinations, 

 pronounced some of the deposits near the city of St. John to be 

 of Upper Devonian age. 



At the beginning of the present decade, a geological survey of 

 the State of Maine, under Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, was under- 

 taken, by which a knowledge of some of the metamorphic rocks 

 adjoining New Brunswick was obtained. In the following year 

 the characters of the metamorphic belt eastward of St. John, by a 

 reconnoissance made for the government of New Brunswick by 

 the authors of this paper, in connection with Prof. C. F. Hartt, 

 were discovered. 



The paper described in some details the formations recognized 

 in New Brunswick, and showed how the same formations extended 

 into the State of Maine, which tended to throw much light on the 

 geology of eastern New England, so long involved in obscurity. 



The formations thus recognized are the Lower and Upper 

 Laurentian, the Huronian, the Primordial, the Upper Silurian, 

 the Upper Devonian, the Lower Carboniferous, Carboniferous, 

 and New Red Sandstone, all except the first two and the last con- 

 taining characteristic fossils. Most of these formations may be 

 looked for in New England, especially the Laurentian (now 

 known in the Laurentides of Canada, the Adirondacks of New 

 York, and the Highlands of the Hudson), which probably form 

 portions of the coast in the vicinity of Portland, and the Silurian 

 and Devonian, altered beds of which may constitute much of the 

 crystalline rocks of New England. In connection with this sub 

 ject, one of the principal points of this paper was to show the 

 intimate relation in New Brunswick between certain of the 

 granites of that region and fossiliferous strata, probably of Upper 

 Silurian age, the former passing by regular gradation into the 

 latter. If such highly altered strata, which have long been 

 regarded as eruptive, are thus shown to be of comparatively 



