338 



field, on the borders of New Hampshire, as explained in his 

 Final Report on the Geology of New Hampshire. 



He also showed that the red Sandstone of Trescot, Maine, 

 rests directly upon the Silurian limestone, equivalent to the 

 Niagara group and contains an abundance of Silurian fossils. 

 The Sandstone at that locality is conformable with the strata of 

 the Silurian limestone upon which it rests and therefore is an 

 upper member of that group. Mr. Dawson had also satisfied 

 himself that the red Sandstone of Nova Scotia passes beneath 

 the Coal formation and is therefore not of the new red Sand- 

 stone formation. President Hitchcock, who formerly regarded 

 the Connecticut River Sandstone as the old Red, altered his 

 opinion upon comparing the lithological characters of that rock 

 with the supposed new Red of Nova Scotia, furnished him by 

 Mr. Alger and himself in 1827. Dr. Jackson is now convinced 

 that the red Sandstone of Nova Scotia is not equivalent to the 

 new Red of Europe. He doubts, therefore, the age of the lower 

 strata of Connecticut River and is convinced that they are older 

 than those of the fish deposits of the upper slates. 



He alluded to the delusions that have arisen in searching for 

 coal in the Sandstone of Connecticut River, under the idea that 

 it is the new Red, and consequently over the carboniferous 

 deposits. The error is therefore one of practical importance and 

 should be corrected. It is certain that the carboniferous rocks 

 do not exist below the red Sandstone of Connecticut River, and 

 that the Sandstone in question is deposited in a trough of the 

 older rocks commonly called primary. This may be seen at 

 Northfield and along the edge of the Sandstone basin lower down 

 the river. 



Dr. Jackson drew upon the black board a series of diagrams 

 demonstrating the true position of the Sandstones of the Con- 

 necticut River, of Maine, Nova Scotia, and Lake Superior. He 

 said, that so far as his own observations go they would tend to 

 support the views which Elie de Beaumont had conceived from the 

 facts which he had learned from him in 1844 and '45, and from 

 Mr. Logan quite recently. All the facts that had come to his 

 knowledge indicated that the Sandstone of Kewenaw Point and 

 Isle Royale was an upper and not a lower member of the Silu- 



