324 THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 



additional observations made by Henry Poole, Esq., I concluded as 

 follows : — 



"The facts above stated in no respect shake the conclusion that 

 the New Glasgow conglomerate is contemporary with the Albion Coal 

 measures, and the remains of a great accumulation of shingle sepa- 

 rating these from the more open space without. On the contrary! 

 they tend to confirm it ; and none of the fossils obtained by Mr Poole 

 indicate any recurrence of Lower Carboniferous rocks in the anticlinal 

 which throws up the conglomerate in association with beds of the 

 Middle Coal measures. A very remarkable fact stated by Mr Poole 

 is perhaps a proof of the contemporaneous disturbances and changes 

 of level connected with the original formation of this conglomerate. 

 He says, — ' There are numerous small faults running across the mea- 

 sures in the Fraser Mine, which are uniformly downthrows to the 

 west ; and I may here mention that I observed, some years ago, in 

 the Deep seam, several faults from four to ten feet each, which could 

 not be found in the main coal workings above (the distance between 

 the two seams is 157-J- feet), which shows that the disturbances must 

 have taken place previous to the formation of the Main Coal Seam.' ' 



I now hold that the additional fact above stated, of the occurrence 

 of a ridge of older rock penetrating the conglomerate between the 

 East and Middle Rivers, gives further confirmation of this theory 

 of the relation of the conglomerate. This ridge of older rocks must 

 have been surrounded with a deposit of gravel in the Millstone-grit 

 period, and so often thereafter as the area was submerged, either on 

 one side or the other ; and with its associated gravel-ridge must have 

 & formed just such a dam or barrier as is required to account for the 

 very exceptional character of the enormous coal beds of the area 

 included within it. It results that the New Glasgow conglomerate is 

 not that of the Lower Carboniferous, which underlies the marine lime- 

 stones, but is to be regarded as an anomalous and peculiar modification 

 of the Millstone-grit, succeeded in ascending order on the south side 

 by the great Coal measures of the Albion Mines, and on the north by 

 a depauperated representative of these beds, graduating upward into 

 the Upper or Newer Coal measures. 



I may further remark that the relation of these latter beds to the 

 conglomerate and the hard rocks below it, is similar to that which I 

 believe obtains on a larger scale along some parts of the northern and 

 eastern slope of the Cobequids. If the view above given is correct, 

 it would follow that the Coal measures on their return dip to the south 

 near New Glasgow should present some marked points of difference, 

 O as compared with those of the Albion Mines, and that there may be 

 places where their outcrop has been so far spared by denudation as to 



