[ells] geology of the OIL-SHALES OF SCOTLAND 41 



In many sections made across the Perry fonnation as developed in 

 Bouthem New Brunswick the presence of the massive red conglomerates 

 near the base and associated shales and sandstone are a prominent fea- 

 ture. The total thickness aggregates several thousand feet, but as one 

 ascends in the series the usually red-brown beds of the lower portion 

 gradually change to grey, and the conglomerate character gives place to 

 coarse and fine grits, with grey and dark-coloured shales which in places 

 contain plant and fish remains sometimes in great abundance. In places 

 also a marked bituminous cliaracter is strongly developed, and at times 

 they assume all the characters of the bituminous shales of the Albert 

 series. 



This bituminous character can be traced at intervals from west to 

 east for from 60 to 70 miles, though sometimes this feature is much less 

 strongly marked. The fact that these shales are undoubtedly an integral 

 portion of the Perry formation as now understood, occurring above the 

 red conglomerate portion at the base, is clearly established. The original 

 contention of Sir William Dawson and others that the series known as 

 the Albert shales of New Brunswick and the Horton series of Nova 

 Scotia are practically on the same geological horizon has been sustained 

 both on stratigraphical and fossil evidence, so that in eastern Canada it 

 appears to be fairly well established that the oil-shales of both provinces 

 should be regarded as an upper part of the Devonian system, in the same 

 way that the Scotch oil-shales are held to be an integral portion of the 

 Calciferous sandstone formation. 



While the colour of the Perry conglomerate and sandstone at the 

 base of the formation in its western development is decidedly a dark red, 

 on tracing the formation eastward through Kings county into Albert 

 and Westmoreland the colour at times changes to a greenish-grey, though 

 in composition the green rock appear to be similar to the red. The peb- 

 bles in the conglomerate have generally been derived from the under- 

 lying crystalline rocks, but in places, especially about St. John, they con- 

 tain pieces of other divisions of the Devonian as seen in that area. In 

 Scotland the presence of this characteristic conglomerate as indicating 

 the base of the Calciferous or oil-shale series was not definitely recog- 

 nized, unless a considerable thickness of red, grey and white sandstone 

 and coarse grit with thin conglomerates found near the southern margin 

 of the basin on the coast south of Edinburgh may be taken as its 

 equivalent. 



In the early descriptions of these shales and associated rocks by Sir 

 William Dawson as developed in the Maritime provinces, while their 

 position beneath the marine limestone was recognized they were referred 

 to as Lower Coal measures. This formation was held to include both 



