120 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



minations of Drs. A. Gesner and Jas. Robb did not result in 

 anything more than a declaration that the beds containing plants 

 were of Transition or Silurian age, meaning older than the Old Red 

 Sandstone (or Devonian). 



The later studies of the region where these beds occur by the 

 late Prof. C. F. Hartt and G. F. Matthew resulted in the discovery of 

 a large number of species of plants and some insects. The plants 

 were referred for study to the late Sir Wm. Dawson, at that time the 

 highest authority we had on plants of the Palaeozoic formations, and 

 the insects to Dr. Scudder. Sir William at first thought the plants 

 to be of Upper Devonian age, but subsequently referred the whole of 

 these plants to the Middle Devonian. Sir William studied the suc- 

 cession and relations of the associated strata in coming to this con- 

 clusion. He visited the section at Courtney Bay and thence to the 

 highest beds of the Little River formation, of which the Plant beds 

 form a part. These, in ascending order to the southward are 



Dadoxylon Sandstone 



Cordaite Shales, etc. 



Mispec Slate 



Sir William also visited the Kennebecasis River, where an over- 

 lying series of strata in its middle part contains a flora equivalent to 

 the Pocono and Sub-Carboniferous of Pennsylvania. This series is 

 also found at various places further to the S.W. until it reaches the 

 United States border, where it contains the flora of the Perry sand- 

 stones, which have been so fully described by Sir William and later 

 by Mr. David White. Both of these palaeobotanists agree in referring 

 the contained flora of the Perry beds to Upper Devonian. As Sir 

 William found this flora to be Upper Devonian one can easily see why 

 he called the underlying plants of the Fern Ledges Middle Devonian. 



When, under the auspices of the Provincial Government, the 

 writers of this paper, in association with Prof. Hartt, turned their 

 attention to the study of the geology of New Brunswick, they found 

 all the Pre-Devonian strata in the southern portion of the Province 

 strongly folded into parallel ridges, with axes running NE and SW, 

 with many sharp folds; and also that the beds were considerably 

 changed by metamorphism, the plants graphitised, fossil trunks of 

 trees converted into anthracite, and the disseminated lime of the 

 sediments largely removed and replaced by silica, so that the sand- 

 stones were no longer "freestone" but hardened and approaching the 

 condition of quartzite. No such conditions were found in the L^pper 

 Devonian-Lower Carboniferous beds which were held together by a 

 cement lining chiefly calcareous. 



