36 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



been known as the " Albert shale series/' a name derived from the name 

 of the county in which these shales are largely developed. 



The geological position of these several rock series has for many 

 years been regarded as practically the same, both in Scotland and in 

 Canada, being held to constitute a part of the Lower Carboniferous 

 formations. In Scotland the Calciferous sandstone formation in which 

 the oil-shales occur is still regarded as belonging to the lower portion of 

 the Lower Carboniferous series and is held to conformably underlie the 

 marine limestone and associated sediments of that series. In New 

 Brunswick, however, as also in Nova Scotia, while the oil-shale series is 

 everywhere beneath the mariné limestone and the associated gypsum of 

 the Lower Carboniferous their contact in every observed case is un- 

 doubtedly an unconformable one. This unconformity between these two 

 formations can be observed over a veiy large extent of country extending 

 from Newfoundland on the east to the western boundary of New Bruns- 

 wick, a distance from east to west of between 400 and 500 miles. In 

 consequence of this marked unconformity between the oil-shale series 

 and the marine limestone and gypsum the former is now in Canada re- 

 garded as belonging to a lower geological horizon or to what is styled the 

 Perry formation. This formation belongs to the upper part of the De- 

 vonian system, and is apparently the equivalent of the Chemung division 

 of the New York state series of formations. It should therefore be be- 

 neath the Carboniferous proper. 



The study of these rocks both in Canada and in Scotland, shows 

 that the stratigraphical sequence and physical characters of the several 

 divisions of the Carboniferous system are practically identical in the 

 two countries. Thus in the Memoir published by the Geological Survey 

 of Scotland, 1906, on " the oil-shales of the Lothians," the sequence of 

 Carboniferous formations as given in descending order is as follows: 



1. The Coal measures proper. These carry several important coal- 

 beds, mined extensively at various places for coal. They underlie a 

 series of red sandstones, the exact horizon of which in Scotland does not 

 appear to be definitely ascertained, but which appear to correspond 

 closely with what in eastern Canada has been styled the Upper or Permo- 

 Carboniferous. The peculiar oil-shale, kno^vn as Torbanehill mineral or 

 Torbanite occurs in Scotland in the lower part of this formation and 

 above the Millstone-grit formation, in which respect it corresponds almost 

 exactly with the oil-bearing mineral known as Stellarite, which occurs 

 in Nova Scotia in the Pictou coal-field near the base of the Productive 

 Coal-measures. This resembles closely Torbanite not only in physical 

 characters, but in the percentage of contained crude oil, the yield of 

 which in both countries being from 50 to 130 gallons per ton. 



