[ezzs] THE CARBONIFEROUS BASIN IN NEW BRUNSWICK 51 
lying portion of the Carboniferous series in the western part of the 
province, but the order of succession there observed can be supplemented 
by the materials obtained in the southeastern part of the area. 
The total thickness of the lower Carboniferous, as the result of 
measurements in Albert and Westmorland, is not far from 5000 feet. 
The rocks are red and gray marls, sandstones and conglomerates with 
limestones and gypsums which are about the middle of the formation. 
Beneath this lie the Albert shales and their basal conglomerates. 
The Albert shales are distinctly unconformable to the rocks of the 
lower Carboniferous proper. They have usually been regarded as con- 
stituting the lowest, portion of that formation, chiefly on the evidence 
of certain fish remains which are found in some of the bands of shale of 
a highly bituminous character, and which were long supposed to represent 
lower Carboniferous forms. The thickness of the bituminous Albert 
shales is about 800 feet and of the underlying basal conglomerates about 
200 feet. 
The pebbles in the latter are derived from the crystalline rocks of 
pre-Cambrian age, on which they rest. The precise equivalents of the 
Albert series have not yet been definitely recognized in Nova Scotia, but 
they are supposed to be there represented by certain bituminous shales 
found along the lower portion of the Avon River, north of the town of 
Windsor, in which also remains of fishes occur, and which have there 
been styled the “ Windsor formation.” These rocks are by some obser- 
vers now regarded as more properly belonging to the Devonian system. 
In the western and southern parts of the province also some con- 
fusion has arisen in regard to the proper base of the lower Carboniferous 
formation. Beneath the strata which have always been regarded by the 
New Brunswick geologists as properly referable to that horizon is a series 
of reddish shales and conglomerates which were styled by Sir William 
Dawson the “ Perry sandstone group.” These rocks were placed by Sir 
William forty years ago in the Devonian system as the result of his study 
of the plant remains there found. This opinion has also been main- 
tained by such of the United States geologists as have worked most in 
this district, including Hitcheock and Jackson, and their contention as 
to their position has been well sustained by later work on stratigraphical 
grounds. Like the Albert shales, they are unconformably beneath the 
lower Carboniferous limestones and their associated strata, and above 
the great series of shales and sandstones which have always been regarded 
in New Brunswick geology as of Devonian age, comprising the Dadoxv- 
lon sandstone, the Cordaite shales and the Mispec conglomerates and 
slates. 
Owing to certain lithological resemblances to other conglomerates 
found along the shores of Kennebecasis Bay, which were supposed to 
