[MATTHEW ] A BACKWARD STEP IN PALÆOBOTANY 117 
glomerate at the base, largely composed of volcanie rocks and with dark 
red slates and conglomerates above. These extend to the western 
border of St. John County, beyond which, eighteen miles to the west, 
the conglomerate contains rolled fragments of Silurian corals (Haly- 
sites). This shows the erosion of the underlying strata to the middle of 
the Silurian terrane (where these fossils are found in their original 
position) before the deposition of the Mispec terrane. The strong slaty 
cleavage in the mud beds of this terrane, as well as the composition of 
the conglomerates, differentiates it from the Lower Carboniferous shales 
and conglomerates. 
Underlying the Mispee terrane and unconformable to it, is the 
Little River Group, whose plant beds near St. John contain the flora 
which Messrs. White, Kidston, and Ami have relegated to the Carboni- 
ferous System. To show its stratigraphical relation to the true Car- 
boniferous rocks the following sections have been prepared. 

No. 1. Section from Kennebecasis R. to Mispec Barrens.—Scale, 2 miles to an 
inch D & C—Little R. terrane; D—Dadoxylon Sandstone; C'=Lower Cor- 
daite shale; C=Upper Cordaite shale ; M—Mispec terrane; L.C.— Lower 
Carboniferous terrane. 
This section shows the principal basin of the Little River and 
Mispec terranes. It also shows the erosion of these terranes before the 
deposition of the Lower Carboniferous conglomerate, etc. 
Not only were these terranes eroded, but the series of underlying 
terranes to the “ Fundamental” or Laurentian gneiss were exposed by 
denudation in the Lower Carboniferous times ; since the pebbles of its 
conglomerate consist largely of Laurentian limestone and gneiss. The 
break therefore which separates the true coal measures from the “ imper- 
fect coal measures” (as Dr. Gesner called them) of the Little River 
terrane, was a very important one, involving great stratigraphical dis- 
turbance and profound erosion, therefore marking a great lapse of time. 
