26 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



south-west from the lower part of the St. John river. This belt reaches 

 the shore of the Bay of Fundy, a short distance east of Beaver Harbour, 

 and thence occupies most of the distance to Barnaby Head at the west 

 entrance to Lepreau harbour. The schists are largely hornblendic and 

 CTieissic, and these make up a large portion of the area, but there are 

 also large masses of granite and granite-gneiss. These rocks underlie 

 the Silurian, and as a body are quite distinct from those portions of the 

 so-called Kingston group seen at Letite and just described. They are 

 probably the extension of the more crystalline portion of the Kingston 

 group, which lies to the north of Kennebecasis bay. 



In the study of these crystalline rocks north of the Bay of Fundy, 

 it was found that the crystalline character was sometimes caused by 

 local intrusions, though principally due to regional metamorphism. 

 Generally speaking, it appears that the whole area extending from the 

 Maine coast through the chain of the Western isles, as well as the 

 adjacent shores of New Brunswick, was a great centre of volcanic activity 

 at a comparatively recent date. Most of these volcanic rocks appeared 

 probably at or near the close of the Upper Silurian or in the early 

 Devonian time, since in the latest Devonian, as represented by the red 

 rocks of the Perry group, the only evidence of such intrusion in New 

 Brunswick is the presence of a few dykes of diabase, which cut directly 

 across these sediments and have altered them to some extent. On the 

 island of Grand Manan, however, there is evidence of a later eruptive 

 period, which has produced the great mass of trappean rock which now 

 forms the western wall of the island, and from which a spur cuts across 

 the Devonian or Silurian volcanics which form the mass of Fish Head 

 at the north-east end. These traps are very like those of the North 

 Mountain in Nova Scotia, and are probably referable to the Trias. 



On the shores of Oak bay, which is an arm of the St. Croix estuary 

 to the north, there are numerous outcrops of hard and altered slates, 

 often highly felspathic, and breaking with a sharp conchoidal fracture. 

 Though highly altered, certain bands contain Upper Silurigji fossils 

 sufficiently well preserved to be determinable. The whole series in this 

 area is highly metamorphic, very often from local intrusions, and the 

 slates are intersected by igneous rocks, which comprise gabbro, granite, 

 felsite and diabase. The slates are altered along the contacts, and are 

 sometimes sharply cut off by the intrusive rocks. Occasional heavy 

 bands of conglomerate are found on the shore, the pebbles in which 

 appear to be of volcanic material. In the direction of the St. Croix 

 river, as at St. Stephen and Calais, these slates are invaded by heavy 

 masses of gabbro and gabbro-granite. 



