iferous, and contained, in addition to the many remains 

 of land plants, fossil insects, the oldest of any known to 

 science. Mr. Geo. F. Matthew, of St. John, had pre- 

 viously found a few obscure plant fragments in these 

 same beds, and also in the shales at the foot of the city 

 of St. John. These were described by Dr. Dawson, who 

 also worked up most of the species afterwards obtained 

 by Hartt. Mr. Hartt's observations on these beds were 

 continued through the years 1861, '62, and '63, and he 

 has given us, as a result of his labors, a minute descrip- 

 tion of the several beds and their fossil contents. Of 

 insects there were discovered five species, represented 

 by fragments of wings only. Mr. S. H. Scudder, who 

 studied them, has referred them all to the Neuroptera, 

 in part to new, in part doubtfully to old, families, and 

 suggests that some of the forms represent synthetic 

 types. 



Mr. Hartt, in connection with Prof. Bailey and Mr. 

 Matthew, made in 1864, the first large collection of fos- 

 sils obtained from the Acadian or Primordial group in 

 the vicinity of St. John. The principal localities exam- 

 ined were Ratcliffe's ravine and Coldbrook, at which 

 latter place Mr. Matthew had previously discovered a 

 few obscure forms. From these, however, no satisfactory 

 conclusions as to the exact age of the beds had been 

 attained. The new collections, consisting mainly of finely 

 preserved trilobites, were placed in Hartt's hands for 

 study, and by him worked up with great care at Cam- 

 bridge, Mass. He published, in 1865, his preliminary 

 report upon them, in which he proved that the beds in 

 which they were found are equivalent to about the 

 " etage C " of Barrande, or the Potsdam group proper 

 of America. This report contained the first positive 

 evidence of the existence of Primordial strata in New 

 Brunswick. Descriptions of the principal fossils by 

 Hartt, with many figures, are contained in Dr. Dawson's 

 " Acadian Geology " (1868). 



It was also in 1864 that Hartt obtained proof of the 

 Pre-Carboniferous age of the gold of Nova Scotia. His 



