136 MATTHEW ON CAMBEIAN 



Cambrian rocks north of the St. John basin, no trace of this part of the Cambrian system 

 has been discovered, though there are several areas of Cambrian rocks belonging to the 

 St. John group : those rocks may be seen to rest on the Laurentian gneisses and lime- 

 stones at several different localities. 



In the next valley to the north, that of the Long Reach of St. John River, the red 

 rocks of the lower series of Cambrian measures are well displayed, being brought to the 

 surface by an anticlinal fold running along the north side of St. John River in that 

 part of its course. Those underlying measures, both here and in the St. John basin, are 

 thus of considerable importance. 



Mr. Alexander Murray, in his report on the geology of Newfoundland (p. 238), has 

 described a mass of rod, green and gray sandstones, with slates of similar color, Avhich lie 

 at the base of the Paradoxides beds on that island. He estimates their thickness at 1,500 

 feet, and states that while they are present in the Cambrian basins of Trinity, St. Mary's 

 and Placentia Bays, they are absent from those of Conception and Fortune Bays. Hence 

 we may infer that these lower sandstones, etc., form a lower series unconformable to the 

 beds carrying Paradoxides. The only fossils reported from these rocks are " obscure forms 

 like fucoids and peculiar markings resembling annelid tracks." 



Between the beds of this lower portion of the Cambrian system in New Bruns- 

 wick and those which lie at the same horizon in Norway and "Wales there is a strong 

 resemblance in mineral character. In these countries feldspathic sandstones, often of a 

 red color, with some conglomerate and more or less of red and green shales or slates, make 

 up the initial part of this basal formation. 



The late Prof. Theodore Kjerulf has very carefully investigated this part of the 

 Cambrian in Norway, whore it is known as the Sparagmite formation. He diA'ided it into 

 two i^arts, viz., (1) Upper: blue quartzite and quartzi ferons sandstone, 310—500 metres 

 (about 1,000 — 1,600 feet) thick; and (2) Lower: grey and red sparagmite; also conglom- 

 erates and sandstones, 630 — 910 metres (2,000 — 2,900 feet) thick. In this formation 

 (terrein) no fossils are known in the lower division, but they are found at the base of the 

 upper division. The genera found there correspond to those of Bands b and c of Division 

 1 of the St. John group, and therefore the upper division of the Sparagmite formation is 

 of Primordial age, and the lower will correspond, in part at least, to the vinderlying series 

 of red rocks of the St. John basin. 



It seems doubtful if this lower part of the Cambrian system is fully represented in 

 Sweden. In this country, the oldest beds were first described as the " fucoidal sand- 

 stone ; " but as the greatest thickness of this sandstone at several localities, where it was 

 measured by Hisiuger, "Wallen and Sidenbladh, did not exceed eighty feet, it is not likely 

 that it represents in full the great mass of sediments which in Norway, Britain, New- 

 foundland and Acadia, lie at the base of the Cambrian system. This sandstone corresponds 

 in part to the grey sandstones and dark grey shales of Bands a and b of Division 1 of the 

 St. John group, which in their eastern exposures have a thickness, the former of about 

 200 feet, and the latter of some 140 feet. 



In "Wales there is a series of beds, which, perhaps, more nearly than any others, 

 corresj)onds in mineral character, and the relics of once existing life which they contain, 

 to the lower Cambrian rocks of Acadia. To the zeal and acumen of Dr. Henry Hicks, 

 above all others, science is indebted for the discovery of a somewhat varied fauna in 



