4 JS THERE COAL UNDER P. E. ISLAND ? — POOLE. 



series bave suffered much more. The disturbances tliat did 

 occur, being in proportion to the continental movements, and 

 local, were principally due to settlements under the weight of 

 an increasing mass on an imperfectly denuded and uneven 

 floor of deposition of a previous cycle. 



The principal phj^sical features seem to have been retained 

 during the several epochs in the area of the Gulf and its 

 surroundings. Ever since Silurian time the Gulf was an area 

 of depression in its relation to more ancient rocks, although afc 

 some periods occupied l)y more recent and more easily eroded 

 deposits, elevated for a time above the general level of the ocean. 

 During the recurring cycles since Pre-Cambrian erosion gave it 

 shape, depression, deposition, elevation and erosion, regional in 

 action, have been each in turn at work, not always fully replacing 

 and not always fully undoing, the results attained by the oppos- 

 ing force. We see this in the marginal remains and in the islands 

 of the Gulf. 



In very early stages of the earth's history direction seems 

 to have been given to the subaerial erosion by the line of frac- 

 ture that branched westward from the continental edge during 

 periods of elevation which then established a system of drainage 

 for a larofe area. The same fracture affected the foldino-.s con- 

 sequent on settlement of the deposits and the oscellations of the 

 plateau. 



The geological history of the region it is assumed may be thus 

 summarized : — It was fashioned by deep erosion while Cambrian 

 depositions M^ere proceeding, and folded by lateral pressure which 

 produced parallel ranges along the edge of the continent, the con- 

 tinuity of which was disturbed by the branch fracture to which 

 reference has already been made. Of the lines of partial relief to 

 the lateral pressure, one was established on the south side of the 

 coastal range in New Brunswick, thence it was diverted by the 

 fault spoken of to a course nearly due east and w^est, leaving on the 

 north the highlands of Dall\ousie Mt. in Pictou Co., and those near 

 Cape George in Antigonish. It thus formed the southern rim to 

 the Gulf resion. Thence renewincj their orifjinal direction the oro- 



