[BAILEY]] GYPSUM DEPOSITS OF NEW BRUNSWICK IS 



by albertite. That the production of selenite crystals has continued 

 since the time of the deposition of the massive rock is indicated by the 

 fact that red sandstones, later in origin than the gypsum proper, are 

 traversed by numerous narrow veins of satin spar. 



Comparing other deposits of the province with those of Hillsborough, 

 it may be noted that those of the Tobique valley, in Victoria county, 

 are remarkable as being not only much less pure, but also as being 

 distinctly crystalline throughout, with traversing veins of fibrous gyp- 

 sum or satin spar, probably of later origin. At this point also the 

 limestones, instead of being flaggy and destitute of fossils, as at Hills- 

 borough, are coarsely tufaceous and stalagmitic, as though of crenitic 

 origin, at the same time enclosing somewhat numerous fragments and 

 trunks of calcified trees. In the former feature they suggest com- 

 parison with the tufaceous deposits found around the shores of the 

 Great Salt Lake, in Utah, and which have been regarded as due to the 

 action of saline water upon brooks charged with calcic carbonate, leading 

 to the rapid and complete precipitation of the latter. 



Near Sussex, in King's count}', groups of selenite crystals, with 

 the crystals filled with grains of sand, are found at the bottom of springs, 

 and appear to be still in process of formation. Here also the gypsum 

 is accompanied by brine springs, which are wanting at Hillsborough. 



On the Petitcodiac river, a few miles from Salisbury, in West- 

 morland county, a considerable mass of gypsum is wholly in the con- 

 dition of selenite crystals, mostly of small size, or granular, but 

 traversed by veins in which large plates of the crystalline variety are 

 associated in a most intricate fashion. 



Upon the peninsula terminating in Cape Meranguin, in Westmor- 

 land county, about fifteen miles from Hillsborough, but separated by 

 the waters of the Petitcodiac river and Shepody Bay, the shore shows 

 an interesting section, in which beds of finely granular gray and white 

 gypsum, more or les spotted with selenite crystals, contain masses of 

 anhydrite in the form of irregular wedge-like or lenticular layers, 

 besides bands of brownish red rubbly sandstone, enclosing masses of 

 gypsum, the whole resting upon limestones containing fossil shells. 

 The selenite crystals are of a deep red colour. 



At Demoiselle Creek, about six miles from Hillsborough, plaster 

 beds which may be continuous or nearly so with those of the latter 

 locality, though now separated at the surface by a high ridge of con- 

 glomerate and gray sandstone (]\Iil]stone grit), contain a stratum, from 

 eight to ten feet thick, in which the rock is a coarse breccia, filled 

 with angular fragments of g}-psum of all sizes, and which indicate that 

 the conditions of quiescence under which the ordinary plaster rocks 



