Section IV., 1894. [ 89 ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



VI. — Oil the Organic Remains of the Little River Group, Xo. //. 

 By G. F. Matthew, D.Sc. 



(Read May 25, 1893.) 



Some six years ago the writer read before this Society an article entitled " Remarkable 

 Organisms of the Silurian and Devonian Rocks in Southern New Brunswick." Several of 

 these were fossils found in the shales of the Little River Group and placed in his hands for 

 study by Mr. W. J. Wilson, now of the staff of the Geological Survey of Canada. Being 

 engaged on the Cambrian faunas, the work on those of later date was not continued then, 

 but the time now seems opportune for undertaking the investigation of these later faunas. 



Three of the groups described in this paper were referred to the " Middle and Upper 

 Devonian" on the strength of the plant remains contained in the middle group. No marine 

 organisms were found in any of these groups' and the determination from plant remains 

 alone seems not altogetlier satisfactory, except within a larger range of time ; an<l the author 

 proposes to resume in this and succeeding papers the use of the local name given in 186-3.^ 



Tlie three groups classed as Middle and Upper Devonian were named Bloomsbury, Little 

 River and Mispec. Of these the two first, though unlike lithologically, appear to form one 

 terrain ; but the last appears to be a separate terrain. 



Although the officers of the Geological Survey of Canada have made a close and detailed 

 examination of the disturljed Pre-Carboniferous rocks of southern New Brunswick, no further 

 study of the rocks in the typical " Devonian " basin drained liy the Little and Mispec rivers 

 has been made since the writer more than thirty years ago roughly surveyed it, and outlined 

 its structure. Yet though no work has been done in this area the surveys made east, west 

 and north of it have had an important bearing on the author's present view of the relations 

 of the rocks in this basin. He proposes to allude briefly to the results obtained in these later 

 surveys, in so far as they bear on the question of the age of the rocks in the geological basin, 

 through which flow the Little and the Mispec rivers. 



As the paper in which the rocks of this basin were described may not be accessible to 

 all interested in this subject, such parts as relate to the Post-Cambrian groups are here 

 quoted.'^ 



" As some interest in the geology of this vicinity has been excited by the articles of 

 Professor Dawson [Sir J. W. Dawson] on the Upper Devonian Flora of Eastern America, 



' Some remains referred by J. W. Salter to Eurypterus and Amphipeltis as crustacean, are thought by the 

 author to have been of terrestrial origin, as will be shown hereafter. 



^ Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, Aug., 1863 ; see also Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, I>ondon, Nov., 18G.5. 



■' " Observations on the Geology of St. John County, New Brunswick, by G. F. Matthew." In Can. Nat. and 

 Geol., vol. VIII., Aug., 1863, Montreal, pp. 241-260. 



Sec. IV., 1894. 12. 



