IV.—On THE SUBDIVISIONS OF THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM 
IN EASTERN CANADA, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE 
POSITION OF THE UNION AND RIVERSDALE FORMATIONS 
OF Nova Scotia, REFERRED TO THE DEVONIAN SYSTEM 
BY SOME CANADIAN GeEoLocists.—By H. M. Ami, M. A., 
D. Se., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Cunada, 
Ottawa. 
(Read December iith, 1899.) 
Considerable discussion has arisen of late amongst European 
as well as North American geologists, as to where certain series 
of sedimentary strata occurring near the summit of the Palseozoie 
should be placed, either in the Carboniferous or in the Devonian 
system. 
Whether certain other geological formations, occurring in the 
Maritime Provinces of Canada, should be described as Permian, 
or classed as Upper Carboniferous or Permo-Carboniferous, con- 
stitutes another problem. It is not within the province of this 
paper, however, at this time, to discuss this latter question, which 
it is hoped may form the subject of another paper before long, 
Where to draw the line between the Carboniferous and 
Devonian systems in Eastern Canada, is therefore the question 
at issue, Itis the purpose of the writer to enter this field of 
enquiry without any leaning or bias to any one view, but to take 
up the evidence as it presents itself to him and as it was collected 
by him during the last four years in the Counties of Pictou, 
Colchester, Cumberland, Antigonish, Hants, and Kings, in Nova 
Scotia, referring to such athe localities and additional evidence 
only as the occasion may require. 
Numerous and varied opinions have been given by many 
writers on this important question of the dividing line between 
the Devonian and the Carboniferous. These were consulted 
merely with the purpose of obtaining notes of records of obser- 
vations that might help to throw light upon the problem, without 
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