38 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



Britain, seeing that they abounded in shells and some of them 

 were of dark color and bituminous. The error was a natural 

 one, though a better knowledge of the bearing and significance 

 of the fossils which he found in these rocks would have corrected 

 it. The genus Productus is so common in these limestones that 

 the modern geologist wonders how the limestone could be mis- 

 taken for Lias. Dr. Gesner originated this error in the Car- 

 boniferous limestones of Nova Scotia, seen near Windsor, etc. 

 But there there are two sets of limestones quite different in 

 aspect and in the species of the fossils they contain. Of these 

 the lower contains well marked fossils of the Lower Carbonifer- 

 ous, but the upper has many which are very like those of the 

 Permian, the very latest of the Paheozoic rocks. There would be 

 less surprise if these wei-e mistaken for Mesozoic limestones, but 

 there is no such reason applicable to Gesner's Liassic limestone 

 in New Brunswick. We suppose, therefore, that having classed 

 the upper limestones at Windsor as Lias because they overlaid 

 the Red Saliferous Sandstones of Nova Scotia, he applied the 

 same rule to New Brunswick. 



In 1 843 Dr. Gesner's survey was Ijrought to a sudden and 

 unexpected close, and he never completed the geological map of 

 New Brunswick which he had commenced. This appears from 

 a paragraph in his last report, whei'e he says : " An incomplete 

 geological map of the province is also submitted for your Excel- 

 lency's consideration. By this it will be observed that the labor 

 of another season will be required to bring the geological survey 

 to a conclusion ; and it is veiy desirable that the undertaking 

 should be finished in the same spirit in which it was commenced." 

 This however was never done. 



Dr. Gesner tells us that at the close of his last season's work 

 there still remained to be examined the chief part of the counties 

 of Northumberland, Gloucester and Restigouche. 



Dr. Gesner enlivened his geological reports in a way that is 

 not usual now, though common enough in earlier narratives, by 

 introducing descriptions of scener}' and incidents of his journeys.. 



