58 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Carboniferous. — No evidences of great deformatory movements such 

 as mark the middle of the Devonian age are to be found in passing from 

 the rocks of the Lower Carboniferous system to those of the 

 Millstone. Grit or basal Carboniferous, the unconformity which 

 doubtless exists in places between the two being mainly indicated 

 by the evidences of extensive erosion which took place at that 

 time. But gentle differential movements, occurring subsequently 

 to the laying down of the Coal-measures are indicated by the 

 fact that the whole Carboniferous area has a distinct though 

 very slight inclination towards the Gulf, and secondly by the further 

 fact that the general basin is partially broken up into smaller separate 

 basins, some of which, like the Grand Lake or Newcastle basin, exhibit 

 a distinct synclinal structure. Except that they must have been Post- 

 Carboniferous there is nothing to indicate just when these warpings 

 took place, though unconformity between the Coal-measures and over- 

 lying Permo- Carboniferous beds in Westmorland county give evidence 

 of important movements in that particular section before the Carboni- 

 ferous age had wholly ended. The slight warpings first referred to, 

 though barely recognizable as surface features, had, as will be presently 

 shown, an important influence in the determination of drainage systems. 



Trias-Jura. — There is nothing in the mainland of New Brunswick 

 to indicate earth movements during the passage of these two geological 

 eras; but the volcanic rocks of Grand Manan appear to indicate at this 

 time a great subsidence along the bottom of the old Bay of Fundy trough 

 and the consequent extravasation of the lavas which now constitute so 

 considerable a portion of the island and which, along its entire northern 

 side, determine scenery only surpassed in eastern America by that of 

 the contemporaneous outflows of Blomidon and the Palisades of the 

 Hudson. 



Cretaceous and Tertiary. — The maritime Provinces of Canada 

 nowhere afford any direct evidences of the conditions which prevailed 

 therein during the long interval which separates the early Mesozoic from 

 Quaternary time. From what has been observed elsewhere, however, it 

 is possible to frame more or less plausible theories bearing upon this sub- 

 ject and among these is that of Prof. E. A. Daly, of Harvard Univer- 

 sity,i who supposes that during these periods New Brunswick and Nova 

 Scotia were the theatre of extensive and general peneplanation, reducing 

 the surface to comparatively uniform levels, from which, however, here 

 and there, were left relics of older terrains in the form of Monadnocks. 

 This subject will be again referred to in another connection. But be- 



1 Bulletin, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Geological Series V. 73-103. 



