[bailey-matthew] new BRUNSWICK GEOLOGY 119 



latter was in the Devonian age a center of intense volcanic activity. 

 The shores of the Bay Chaleur and other parts of Gloucester county, 

 as shown by Ells, mark another area of intense vulcanism, while the 

 disposition of the igneous and other deposits here are such as to 

 indicate that this depression, like that of Passamaquoddy Bay, was 

 already in existence in Silurian times. 



The Plant Beds of St. John County 

 The exception mentioned in foregoing remarks as to the ease 

 with which Silurian strata, when containing fossils, may be recognized, 

 is to be found in connection with the celebrated plant beds found 

 on the Carleton shore near the city of St. John and elsewhera in St. 

 John county, these having long been the subject of serious and even 

 somewhat bitter controversy. First collected largely by the late 

 Prof. C. F. Hartt, who always believed in their Devonian age, they 

 were subsequently studied by Sir Wm. Dawson not only on palseo- 

 botanical but also stratigraphical grounds, and were by him referred 

 to the Upper Devonian, and later to Middle Devonian. With this 

 view the present writer, as well as Matthew, Ells and Fletcher, in 

 fact all who were familiar with the stratigraphy of the region, were in 

 complete accord, though still later, with the same downward tendency, 

 Matthew expressed the opinion that they were Silurian. On the other 

 hand. Dr. David White, of the U. S. Geological Survey, Dr. Ami of 

 the Canadian Survey, Mr. G. A. Young of the same survey and Mrs. 

 Mary C. Stopes, of the British Museum, maintain, mainly on palaeo- 

 botanical grounds, and in most instances with little or no personal 

 familiarity with the stratigraphy or the character of the Carboniferous 

 as found elsewhere in the Province, that they are not even Devonian, 

 but well up in the Carboniferous (Lower Coal Measures). 



We do not propose to discuss here the botanical side of the ques- 

 tion. We admit freely that, with one or two exceptions, the organic 

 remains, including both plants and insects, are niade up of types which 

 are usually regarded as Carboniferous; but this does not prove that 

 such types may not, under favorable conditions, have come into 

 existence at periods earlier than generally supposed, much as the first 

 appearance of fishes has been successively moved backward until it 

 has now reached the Middle Cambrian. But we do wish to state 

 clearly the grounds, derived from the character and stratigraphical 

 relations of the beds, which justify the belief, first entertained by us 

 more than fifty years ago, that the rocks in question are of Pre- 

 Carboniferous origin. 



In the earlier investigation of these beds the examination 

 of the containing rocks was somewhat cursory, and the deter- 



