[MATTHEW] GEOLOGICAL CYCLES JN MARITIME PROVINCES US 



could hardly be anything else than the product of a shingle beach, 

 beaten upon by a heavy surf. Whatever the underlying red sandstones 

 may tell us, these boulder beds would appear to have been accumulated 

 on a sea beach, and tell of the encroachment of the sea, perhaps, at the 

 time of the volcanic eruptions' on the opposite side of the Bay. The 

 cobble stones of these beds are almost all derived from the Cambrian 

 felsites and purple quartzites of the close-by hills, and have travelled 

 but a short distance from their source. 



These cobble beds, by the addition of sandy layers, gradually pass 

 up into the third member of the Jura-Trias of this basin, consisting of 

 sandstones and shales, mostly reddish brown colour, with some gray 

 sanrl stones. These sands and clays contain scattered plant remains ^ 

 which by their character appear to have been derived from Mesozoic 

 plants. 



The Jura-Trias cycle then, though showing a sudden depression 

 below sea-level in its middle term, seems, like its predecessor, to have 

 been mostly epi-continental. 



This is the last cycle of sedimentation which has left its impress 

 on the Maritime Provinces of Canada until one reaches Post-pliocene 

 Time, so there must have been an exceedingly long period of time marked 

 by geological cycles of deposition in other parts of the world which 

 have left no record in this region. This period would have included 

 a great part of the Mesozoic and practically all the Kainozoic Ages. 



' Bull. Nat. Hist. Society of N. Brunswick, Vol IV, p. 68. 



