330 WALCOTT 



the conglomerate, very near the water's edge, which has thrown 

 the conglomerate bed 15 feet to the west. On climbing up the 

 bank we found the conglomerate on the eastern side of the fault, 

 where its dip is lower than on the western side. At low tide a 

 contact was found between the conglomerate and the shales be- 

 neath, which showed that they were conformable. It was also 

 found that the shales and conglomerates on the eastern side of 

 the fault, in the cliff, were conformable both above and below the 

 conglomerate. The unconformity noticed by Mr. Matthew in 

 his section is the difference in the dip on two sides of a fault 

 caused by the displacement accompanying it. This bed of con- 

 glomerate was found at the same horizon in other localities. In 

 every case there was no unconformity in either strike or dip be- 

 tween the shales below and those above. This is particularly 

 well shown in the Cambrian section on the south side of Hearts 

 Delight Harbor, Trinity Bay. 



Mr. Matthew's placing the base of the Cambrian at the St. 

 John quartzite and at the conglomerate in the Smith Sound sec- 

 tion was logical when he assumed that the subjacent strata 

 should be referred to a pre-Cambrian terrane. The change in 

 sedimentation is so apparent that it was unnecessary to seek to 

 establish a marked unconformity to sustain the view that it was 

 the natural boundary line between two systems of strata. He 

 established, however, the break in sediments that affords prob- 

 ably the best line of demarkation between the Middle and 

 Lower Cambrian that is known to exist on the North American 

 continent. 



Mr. Matthew correlates the Lower Cambrian Hanford beds 

 of Manuels Brook with the Protolenus beds of New Brunswick, 

 and considers them as unconformably above the * Etcheminian ' 

 of the Smith Sound section. As about Trinity Bay and in New 

 Brunswick, all of the conditions exhibited at Manuels and about 

 the head of Conception Bay go to prove that the sea bed 

 was very uneven, and that any conclusions as to a general 

 unconformity at the base of the Middle Cambrian on account 

 of the absence or presence of certain beds must be based on the 

 evidence of overlap of the various layers on the pre-Cambrian 

 shoi-e-line rather than on the supposition that there was a general 



