BHOBEfl OF NORTHUMBERLAND STKAIT. 217 



north, which they continue to do as far as the base of the Cobequid 

 Hills at New Annan. Cape Malagasb thus forms an anticlinal ridge, 

 which extends far to the westward into the interior of Cumberland; 

 and if we consider the limestone at M'Kenzie's as the equivalent of 

 the Pugwash and Napan limestones, then the trough between it and 

 the New Annan Hills corresponds to the Joggins trough, though 

 narrower, and the northerly dipping beds of the Gulf shore correspond 

 to those north of the Joggins in New Brunswick. It is, however, 

 more probable that the great Cumberland trough is here, as already 

 hinted, split into two by the intervention of the Malagasb anticlinal. 

 Unless the more important parts are concealed by the imperfection of 

 the sections, the whole Carboniferous series appears here to be less 

 fully developed than on the western coast of the county. 



The beds seen with northerly dip at Tatamagouche, and thence to 

 New Annan, have the aspect of those of the Upper Coal formation. 

 They constitute a belt extending along the coast and connecting the 

 ( 'umberland coal area with that of Pictou. Though beyond the limits 

 of the county of Cumberland, they may be noticed here. 



At the mouth of the French River are gray sandstones and shales, 

 containing a few Endogenites, Catamites, and pieces of lignite, impreg- 

 nated with copper ores. Beneath these appears a series of brownish 

 red sandstones and shales, with a few gray beds, occupying, in a 

 regular descending series, about six miles of the river section. They 

 contain, in a few places, nodules of copper glance (gray sulphuret of 

 copper) ; they are often rippled, and contain branching fucoidal marks. 

 On one of the rippled slabs I found marks consisting of four footprints 

 of an animal. They were three inches and a half apart, and each 

 exhibited three straight marks as if of claws. These were described 

 in 1843; and in the following year I discovered at the same place 

 another series of footsteps of different form. Neither of these were 

 sufficiently well marked to give any definite information respecting 

 the nature of the animal that produced them ; but I am now convinced 

 that they must have been the traces of reptilian animals. In my paper 

 sent to the Geological Society in 1844, I find the following remarks : — 



" When examining the red sandstones near Tatamagouche last 

 summer, I found in one of the beds a few footmarks of an unknown 

 animal, specimens of which were sent to this society. They were 

 mere scratches made by the points of the toes or claws, and therefore 

 could give few indications of the form of the feet which produced 

 them. Their arrangement, however, appeared to indicate that the 

 animal was a biped, and their form is quite analogous to that of the 

 marks left by our common sandpiper, when running over a firm sandy 



p 



