Ibailey] presidential ADDRESS 7 



that at certain points portions of them are unequivocally overlaid by 

 Silurian rocks. It was not, however, until 1880 that any definite 

 evidence as to the age of any portion of the area thus referred to was 

 found, when Matthew obtained from one of the branches of the 

 Beccaguimee river, in Carleton, a series of fossils (Harpes, Lingullella, 

 Leptaena, etc.) clearly indicative of a Cambro-Silurian (Trenton) or 

 older Ordovician horizon^ Another locality yielding fossils was that 

 of the Tattagouche river, a few m.iles from Bathurst, from which were 

 obtained graptolites determined by H. M. Ami as homotaxial with 

 those of Norman Kile near Albany, N.Y., or Lower Trenton. Still 

 later the writer was fortunate in finding on Eel river, near Benton, in 

 Carleton County, abundant remains of graptolites {Dictyonema 

 flabelliforme) probably of Upper Cambrian age. 



But while the above facts justify the conclusion that there are 

 within the areas under discussion rocks of the high antiquity just 

 assigned to them, there is equally strong eviderice that there are also 

 rocks of much more recent origin and that future editions of the map 

 will require to be greatly altered. Thus Eo-Devonian rocks, contain- 

 ing plant remains were found by Reed in slates at Spring-Hill near 

 Fredericton ; Eo-Devonian marine fossils on a branch of the Nashwaak 

 river (Chas. Robb) ; double graptolites at Seven Mile Brook on the St. 

 John river above Fredericton (Bailey); in Waterville Settlement, 

 York County (Bailey) ; and on Eel river below Benton (Wilson and 

 Bailey). In fact the evidences in favour of a Silurian or Eo-Pevonian 

 age for a large part of the great tract under discussion is much stronger 

 than for the view of their higher antiquity. 



While the geology of northern New Brunswick is thus, to a con- 

 siderable extent, involved in doubt, it is certain that strata of Cambro- 

 Silurian age are to be found in southern New Brunswick. They are, 

 however, of very limited extent and thickness, being found about 

 the Falls of St. John river, being associated with Cambrian strata 

 and forming a portion of the St. John Group of Matthew. The beds 

 are argillaceous, and it is to be noted that nowhere in New Brunswick 

 have we anything resembling in character or origin the heavy coral- 

 bearing limestones which, alike in Canada and the eastern United 

 States, are so marked a feature of the Cambro-Silurian era. At an 

 earlier period the areas above the sea-level were confined to the pre- 

 Cambrian ridge bordering the Bay of Fundy and some portions of 

 King's and Queen's counties, and these in the form of scattered islands 

 of no great size. 



^Compare Beekinantown limestone in New York and Arenig in western Great 

 Britain. 



