On the Age of the Conglomekate Capping the Cambrian 

 Rocks of Nova Scotia. — By Henry S. Poole, D. Sc, 

 Assoc. R. S. M., F. R. S. C, Halifax. 



{Read 16th November, 1903.) 



Patches of a compact conglomerate, in places exceedingly 

 hard to excavate, occur resting on Cambrian strata at various 

 heiofhts, in the neighborhood of Halifax. As the surface soil is 

 generally thin, it is easily seen that the exposures are of 

 detached masses, outliers of a deposit that originally must have 

 extended to a considerable elevation. How wide was the range 

 of the deposit has yet to be determined, but the variation in 

 heiofht cannot have been less than two hundred feet, counting 

 from points well up on the peninsula to discoveries under water 

 at Richmond shipping wharves. This range in elevation and 

 location agrees Avith the investigations made by Mr. Walter H. 

 Prest, <^) at Bridgewater on the LaHave river ; and the deposit 

 bears, in some points, similarity to one found under like con- 

 ditions, well away from the coast at Gay's River.*^' This 

 conglomerate early attracted attention for the gold which it 

 contained, and it was shown by Mr. C. F. Hartt in 1864 to 

 underlie the limestones and plaster of the Lower Carboniferous 

 age. 



Dr. D. Honeyman, speaking of the Digby shore near the 

 border line of Yarmouth County, says : " I recognized the 

 strata at Cape Cove as a counterpart of the Carboniferous 

 auriferous conglomerate and breccia of Gay's river in Colchester 

 County," (Trans. N. S. Inst. Nat. Sc, vol. v., p. 240); while 

 Dr. Bailey, referring to the same deposit, calls it post glacial'^*. 



(1) Trans. N. S. Inst. Nat. Sc , vol. v., p. 240. 



(2) lb , vol. vii., pp. 42 and 11. 



" vol. v., p. 328 refers to the Grand Lake " prehistoric pottery " showing 

 modern concretions. 



(3) Bailey Rep. Oeol. Sur. Can., vol. ix, M., 71. 



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