NOVA SCOTIAN. GEOLOGY—HONEYMA&N. 245 
the commencement of the Carboniferous period. They must 
therefore belong at least to the Devonian group. They differ, 
however, so materially from rocks of that age that they cannot 
be assigned to it with any probability. We must therefore go 
back at least to the Silurian period for the time of their deposi- 
tion ; and possibly they may belong to that still older or Azoic 
series which has been recognized in Canada. Farther, that while 
there is evidence that much of the igneous rock of the Devonian 
hills was erupted during the earboniferous period, there is no 
evidence whatever that any igneous action occurred within the 
granite group as late as the commencement of that period, con- 
sequently the igneous as well as the stratified rocks of the pre- 
sent group are older than the last described (Devonian or Upper 
Silurian rocks). 
In a paper which I read before the Geological Society, “On 
the Gold Fields of Nova Scotia,” Journal 1862, I was led to infer 
the Lower Silurian age of the stratified rocks of the Gold Fields, 
from the consideration that they differed so much from Devonian, 
Upper and Middle Silurian rocks, that they could not be regarded 
as any of these, and as they could not be newer, therefore they 
were probably Lower Silurian metamorphice. 
In the discussion that followed the reading of this paper, Sir 
William Logan maintained the opinion that the rocks in question 
were Devonian metamorphic. Sir R. I. Murchison at the same 
time, on the ground that gold had been discovered in quantity in 
our gold fields, considered that the opinion which I maintained 
was the correct one. 
Subsequently Dr. Selwyn came to the conclusion that the said 
rocks are of Cambrian age, on certain considerations, particularly 
as he had discovered the Cambrian fossil Hophyton in the rocks 
of the Lunenburg Ovens. I had come to entertain the same 
view, i. e., to consider the formation of the rocks to be of 
Cambrian age, and to refer their metamorphism to Lower 
Silurian time, and to adopt the term Cambro-Silurian (Lower) as 
expressive of the age of the rocks metamorphosed, thus referring 
the age of the gold deposits to the Lower Silurian period. The 
term Cambrian, as here used, is, as understood by H. M. Geolo~ 
