II]. —TwHe Procress oF GEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION IN Nova 
Scotia.—By R. W. Ets, Lu.D., F. B.S. C., of the Geo- 
logical: Survey of Canada. 
(Read 13th January, 1902.) 
Probably in no part of the Dominion of Canada is there a 
more interesting field for geological research than is found in 
Nova Scotia and in the sister province of New Brunswick. The 
formations range from the top of the Triassic to the lowest known 
rocks, presumably the fundamental gneiss, and there is a large 
development of the strata peculiar to the Carboniferous, Devonian 
and Cambrian systems, in all of which important geological and 
economic problems are presented. 
It has been found impossible to classify and arrange the 
different roc formaticns of the maritime provinces in accordance 
with the scheme of nomenclature laid down more than half a 
century ago by the Geological Survey of the state of New York, 
and subsequently adopted by Sir W, E. Logan for the province 
of Ontario and Quebec. In consequence of this difficulty, the 
necessity has arisen of placing large groups of strata in divisions 
which have been designated by local names, and this feature has 
been the cause of some confusion to many persons who are not 
familiar with the localities and the points of structure peculiar 
to each. 
Too often, also, there has been an attempt made to parallel 
the rock formations there found with those which they are sup- 
posed to represent in England on the one hand, and in distant 
portions of the United States on the other, ignoring the possibility 
that the succession of life forms on the globe in early years may 
not have moved forward simultaneously over the whole surface, 
but that their distribution may have followed some law of evo- 
lution or development which has not yet been sufficiently 
considered. Geological problems in connection with certain 
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