[ELLs] NOTES ON GEOLOGY OF TRINIDAD AND BARBADOS 117 
The general dip of these schistose rocks is to the south. Nowhere 
was any indication of volcanic rocks observed, either in the form of dikes 
or mountain masses, or even in fragments along the several streams 
which traverse the hill ranges. In character they resemble closely the 
slaty schists of the lower Cambrian or even of some portions of the 
Huronian which is the great ore-bearing series of Canada. Certain 
bands of black slates associated with the schists are very like in character 
to black graphitic slates of the Eastern Township series of Quebec, 
formerly known as the Quebec group. No fossils have as yet been recog- 
nized in this series in Trinidad, but this may partly be due to a lack of 
careful examination of the area for such remains. In the present state 
of our knowledge it would be premature to assign any definite horizon to 
these rocks, further than to say that they are the oldest to be seen and 
are probably low down in the geologic scale. 
To the south of the range of these rocks a series of somewhat dark 
reddish-brown and greyish shales comes in and extends southward nearly 
to the town of San Fernando about twenty-five miles distant. Cuttings 
in these shales are seen along the line of railway east from Port of Spain 
to Sangre Grande which is the eastern terminus of the northerly part of 
the railway system. Along the west coast from Port of Spain to San 
Fernando the country is generally low and level, but low ranges of hills 
rise to the eastward and may possibly indicate the presence of anticlines 
bringing up harder portions of the series which appears to belong, in 
part at least, to the Cretaceous system. Occasionally beds of greyish 
limestone are imbedded with the shales. At San Fernando, which is 
the terminus of the railway along the west coast these so-called Cre- 
taceous rocks rise into the elevation known as Naparima hill, the top of 
which is about 600 feet above sea-level. In general appearance this hill 
resembles the buttes of the north-west plains in Canada. Along the 
flanks of this hill outcrops of the Tertiary rocks are seen, and the hill 
itself forms a well-defined anticline with beds of limestone surrounded 
by the oil-bearing sandstone and shale. 
To the south of San Fernando the shore of the island trends west- 
ward as far as La Brea point a distance of about fifteen miles, and 
thence continues in-a south-west direction, a further distance of about 
twenty-four miles, to the south-west corner of the island at Icacos point. 
Along these shores good exposures of the Tertiary sandstones and shales 
are seen, and the presence of several anticlines can be readily recognized. 
The Tertiary rocks here consist chiefly of soft greyish and dark shale 
with heavy beds of dark grey soft oil-bearing sandstone. In places this 
sandstone, especially along or near the anticlines, is saturated with petro- 
Sec. [V., 1907. 7. 
