LITTLE EIVEE GROUP, No. II. 93 



the Cordaite shales, and the deposit is in every respect simihir to the Lower Carhoniferous 

 conglomerate of the Kennebeeasis valley a few miles to the north. [This outlier of Lower 

 Carboniferous conglomerate rests upon the eroded edges of the Ijeds of the Little River and 

 Mispeek Groups]. 



" Metamorphism. — In the two last named groups [i. e. Dadoxylon and Cordaite] the vege- 

 table remains of the sandstone are converted into anthracite, and the lustre of graphite given 

 to the ferns [and other delicate plants] which the finer beds contain. As soon as we pass to 

 the Lower Carboniferous deposits a wide distinction in this respect is at once apparent, for 

 the vegetable remains which these contain have the appearance of jilants from unaltered 

 coal-measures. The conglomerates also difter greatly from those of the two groups above 

 named in their incoherence, and some of the shales are scarcely harder than the dried mud 

 of a pond." 



To bring these remarks in connection with our present knowledge of the region so far 

 as relates to the terrains of Little River and Mispeek and of the Flora which the formed 

 terrain holds, a few additional remarks are necessary. 



Note on the Little River Group. 



In the article extracts from which are cited above the Little River Group was divided 

 into two principal sections on lithological grounds, and this division is the most obvious one. 

 But a more extended knowledge of tlie surrounding districts has shown that the upper one, 

 or the Cordaite shales exhibits lithological distinctions by which it can be separated into two 

 portions ; of these the lower portion has a predominence of fine shales and fewer sandstone 

 beds, and also is not so calcareous as the upper ; this quality of the upper shales is shown bv 

 the numerous calcite veins which they contain ; siliceous veins are much more plentiful in 

 the lower shales and prevail in the Dadoxylon sandstone (beneath the lower shales) almost 

 to the exclusion of calcite veins. 



If one may conjecture the comparative time value of the several parts of the Little / — (\\C/47^ 

 River terrain and represent it to numbers we might allot these numbers as follows : — /Cv oO» h 



! R ' 



2. Dadoxylon sandstone One part. \"i\ 



3. Lower Cordaite shales One part. Vrfî' /v *» . 



4. Upper Cordaite shales One part. ^tjv "ZT W 



This estimate is based on the kind of sediment in the various parts, the comparative 

 variability in thickness of the several divisions, and other conditions. 



I should here allude to a diflerence between Prof Hartt and myself, probably unnoticed 

 by him, in placing the limit between the Dadoxylon sandstone and the Cordaite shales. My 

 division was placed where the sandstones ceased to appear in massive beds, while his was 

 placed lower down and threw the whole of the plant beds into the Cordaite shales.' Plant 

 bed 'No. 1, which by the first arrangement belongs to the Dadoxylon standstone, shows 

 important difterences in the flora from the beds which follow, and it seems quite possible 

 that the distinction made in the first classification should have been maintained. 



' Observations on the Geology of Southern New Brunswick, Fredericton, 1865— Suppt. On the Devonian plant 

 locality of the Fern Ledges, p. 131, by C. F. Hartt. 



