18 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
elsewhere. In the published map of southern New Brunswick, issued 
in 1878, certain portions were assigned—in the absence of more accurate 
information—to Pre-Cambrian horizons, some to the Laurentian 
and others to one of the divisions of the Huronian system, known as 
the Kingston series. 
This classification of the Pre-Cambrian, in so far as the crystalline 
limestones are concerned, applies more especially to certain areas of this 
kind of rock which are found at several places along the north side of 
the Bay of Fundy in the vicinity of the city of St. John, and at various 
points both to the east and west. These were supposed in the earlier 
days of their study to represent, or to be the equivalents of, the so- 
called Laurentian limestones of parts of the provinces of Ontario and 
Quebec, where they were known under the terms Hastings and Gren- 
ville series. In the case of certain areas of largely schistose strata, in 
which for many years the fossil evidence was not discovered, these were 
supposed to represent some portion of the schistose formations of the 
so-called Huronian system, to which in physical characters there was a 
marked resemblance. 
This hypothesis regarding the early age of many of these meta- 
morphic rocks of the southern part of the province was held for a number 
of years. In some places the subsequent finding of fossils in certain 
of these formations, both in the schistose and calcareous portions, tended 
to rectify the mistake made some years earlier, while in other places 
the examination in detail of the altered sediments tended to reveal the 
direct causes of much of the alteration, and to indicate the probable 
reason of their present metamorphic condition. 
The more recent examination of these metamorphic rocks shows 
that they owe their present characters largely to intrusive greenstones 
or to felspathic masses, which change in their aspect to true granites. 
In these cases the alteration of the fossiliferous sediments can be traced 
from those portions in which the fossil evidence can be clearly made out 
to others in which the organisms are too indistinct for accurate deter- 
mination. This is especially the case in certain of the limestones about 
Latete, which have become altered to the crystalline condition, in which 
however the outlines of the squeezed coral inclusions can be observed, 
although the species of the organisms cannot be determined, while 
the associated shales or slates have assumed a marked schistose aspect 
resembling talcose, micaceous or sericite schists, in which the organic 
structure has been practically destroyed. In the case of certain of 
these fosiliferous sediments where the alteration has not been so marked, 
these contained fossils are sufficiently well preserved to indicate that 
the organic remains belong to some one of the divisions of the Silurian 
system. 
