lO L. W. BAILEY : 



most noticeable peculiarities. No other system, unless it be the Huroniau, will compare 

 with it in this respect, and it is noticeable that between the volcanic members of these 

 two great groups, the lithological resemblances are often so close as to make their recogni- 

 tion difhcvilt. For this reason, and in consequence of the not infrequent close association 

 of the two systems in the same district, several considerable areas have been alternately 

 referred to one or the other of these formations ; but it is probable that a closer microscopic 

 study of both — a work which is greatly needed — will do much to remove this difhculty. 



Still another most interesting fact in connection with our knowledge of the Silurian 

 rocks of New Brunswick has been the discovery, made by Mr. Matthew in 1886, of the 

 remains of Pteraspidian fishes, related to the genus Cyalhaspis of Lankester, in Division III 

 of that system, or in rocks which are about of the age of the Lower Ludlow, and probably 

 of about the same age as those which in Pennsylvania hold the Palœaspis of Prof. Olaypole. 

 This is believed to be our first knowledge of the occurrence of this tyx^e of animal life in 

 strata of so great antiquity, so far at least as Canada is concerned. 



The most important facts in our knowledge of the Devonian system in New Bruns- 

 wick were obtained prior to the extension thereto of the work of the Canadian Survey, 

 the rich flora of Perry, Maine, and Carleton, N. B., together with the interesting insect- 

 remains of the latter, having been previously made known to the world through the 

 labours of Prof. Hartt, Mr. Matthew and Sir W. Dawson. A very important limitation, 

 both in the supposed distribution and bulk of this formation, was, however, made in the 

 first year of the survey by the transference to a very much lower (Pre-Cambrian) horizon 

 of a great mass of non-fossiliferous rocks, occupying chiefly the north side of the Bay of 

 Fundy, and which, from their apparently conformable superposition upon undoubted 

 Devonian strata at St. John, had been regarded as a portion of the latter system. In the 

 same year (18'70) the rocks of Perry, with their supposed equivalents at St. Andrew's and 

 Point Lepreau, were described by the present author and his associate as much more 

 nearly resembling, both in character and position, the rocks of the Lower Carboniferous 

 formation than those which, at St. John, held similar plant remains. At that time, how- 

 ever, the rocks of St. John ^^er.' looked upon as the equivalents of the Chemung and 

 Portage Grroups, whereas later investigations showed that their position was rather that 

 of the Hamilton formation, if not even still older. At that time also but little had been 

 done in the study of the Devonian basin of Bay des Chaleurs, where our knowledge of the 

 relations of these two formations has since been so greatly enlarged by the observations 

 of Mr. E. W. Ells and others. They bear to each other, in this latter region, the same 

 resemblance lithologically as that which led to their association in Passamaquoddy Bay, 

 but both their relative position and their contained fossils are, according to Mr. Ells, such 

 as render their separation comparatively easy. In view of these facts, it would seem pro- 

 bable that the rocks of the " Perry G-roup," as all along maintained by Sir W. Dawson, 

 must be accepted as true Devonian, though occupying in that system a position consider- 

 ably more recent than that of the St. John and Carleton rocks, and being probably the 

 equivalents of the Catskill beds, which in character they nearly resemble. 



The discovery, in connection with the Devonian rocks of Bay des Chaleurs, of fossil 

 fishes [Pterichthys, Coccosteus, Pteraspis, etc.) of the same type as those of the Old Red Sand- 



' Can. Record of Science, vol- ii, no. 4, Octi, 1SS6. 



