114 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



elevated above the sea, showing marks of profound weathering when, 

 in the beginning of Cambrian time, it was again brought down to the 

 sea-level; for its felspathic rocks were kaolinized, its graphite beds 

 turned to a black mud, and its mica schists rendered ' soft and 

 crumbling. 



These conditions can only be recognized where the contact of 

 these basal rocks with the Cambrian can be seen. They are noticeable 

 where the two sets of rocks come together near the outlet of Lily 

 Lake, in Rockwood Park, St. John. Exactly the same conditions are 

 visible at Dugald Brook in Cape Breton, where also the base of the 

 Cambrian is in contact with granitic rocks of a similar ancient "mas- 

 sif." These and other indications point to the probability that for a 

 long period before the deposit of the Cambrian basins along the shores 

 of Southern New Brunswick, there were extensive areas of the earth's 

 crust in this part of the world raised above the sea, and forming a 

 barrier to the extension of the Cambrian sediments to the north- 

 west. 



Base of the Cambrian. At one time it was claimed by one of the 

 writers of this paper that what was then known as the "St. John 

 Group" was the base of the Cambrian system, certain red beds, 

 known as Etcheminian, being of an older series. And there were 

 several reasons for this. First, in the Eastern part of the St. John 

 basin, conglomerates with quartz pebbles were found at the base of the 

 red beds, and on the other hand, in the middle basin of Cambrian 

 sediments the red beds were absent. But when the Cambrian rocks of 

 Cape Breton were investigated, fossil bearing beds were found to the 

 very base of the system there, and with one exception, the genera of 

 brachiopods which they contained were found to be the same as those 

 which elsewhere characterized the Lower Cambrian rocks. Hence 

 their lowest beds were regarded as members of the Cambrian system. 



While the St. John Group as originally understood was, as there 

 stated, subsequently made to include the basal rocks first separated 

 as Etcheminian and Huronian, with their several faunas, there was 

 also a change in an upward direction, the highest faunas of the group 

 being looked upon as Ordovician, and therefore outside of and above 

 the Cambrian strata as recognized in Europe. These Cambro- 

 Silurian or Ordovician deposits will have further consideration 

 presently. 



Distribution of the Cambrian. Only three basins of Cambrian 

 rocks have been definitely recognized in the southern part of New 

 Brunswick, all in or near St. John, of which the one whose rocks under- 

 lie the city is the most important. This is covered at each end by 

 deposits of a later age; and on each side it is bounded by hill ranges of 



