8 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



Vje the elixar vita' and quite sufficient to remove all the ills that 

 rtesh is heir to. Without reference to the nature of their dis- 

 eases, and at evei'y stage of their coniiDlaints they hoped and 

 vainly hoped to obtain relief. In the midst of the forest the 

 little village near the pool of this modern Bethesda was all bustle 

 and confusion, while many for want of accommodation were 

 obliged to depart not healed. * * * Many were the cujet> 

 reported to have been made at this spring. Newspapei's teemed 

 with its praises. But experience soon proved that its powers 

 were not sufficient to remove all the ailments of its visitors ; 

 hence Wilmot spring is already abandoned and its name is seldom 

 spoken. So changeable and unsteady is public opinion." * * * 

 " The waters of the spring have been analyzed by Dr. Webstei* 

 and are found to contain sodium, lime, sulphuric acid and mag- 

 nesia. They will doubtless be beneficial in all scrophulous and 

 glandular diseases. They are generally aperient and cannot fail 

 to be serviceable in dyspepsia and other diseases of the digestive 

 organs." 



Dr. Gesner found various classes of marine organisms in the 

 limestones of Windsor, Shubenacadie and Gay's river connected 

 with the red sandstones and shales. These he at first referred 

 to the Lias of Great Britain in accordance with his view that the 

 sandstones were New Red, but in a later work stated that these 

 rocks were Carboniferous. 



Dr. Gesner mentions the occurrence of salt springs at several 

 places in the red marl or shale group in Cumberland county, and 

 infers from this the presence of important beds of salt lieneath tlie 

 surface. Both he and Messrs. Jackson and Alger take the salt 

 springs as an indication that these sandstones are " New Red " 

 or Triassic. 



The districts that Dr. Gesner included in the new Red Sand- 

 stone have been since divided by geologists into New Red or 

 Trias and Ijower Carboniferous. In later years Dr. Gesne 

 accepted this assignment of the red marls and gypsum beds to 

 the Carboniferous, as may be seen by consulting his later work, 

 Industrial Resources of Nova Scotia (1849) p. 23G. 



While Dr. Gesner found only fcmr districts in Nova Scotia, 

 his Red Sandstone district included also the Coal formation. 



