506 THE DEVONIAN PERIOD. 



slate, which, by accession of coarser materials, becomes a slaty sand- 

 stone and grit filled with white pai-ticles. The strata of this group 

 are much thicker on the north than on the south side of the basin. 

 An isolated deposit of red slates, resembling the finer beds of this 

 group, rests against a mass of altered rock, which seems to be a con- 

 tinuation of the Bloomsbury volcanic beds, at Taylor's Island, west of 

 the Harbour of St John. 



" If the beds last alluded to be properly referred, it is very probable 

 that those of Pisarinco, already mentioned, may in part at least apper- 

 tain to the same group. They have been described, however, as forming 

 a portion of the Cordaite shales. The same is true in part of the dis- 

 trict between Musquash and Chance Harbour." 



Little River Group. 



" The Little River group consists of two members, one of coarse 

 and the other of comparatively fine ingredients, termed, from the 

 characteristic fossils which they hold, the Dadoxylon sandstone and 

 the Cordaite shales. Though intimately connected, they do not in- 

 variably occur together, and for this reason as well as others, will be 

 separately considered." 



" (A.) Cordaite Shales. — In the consideration of this, the upper mem- 

 ber of the Little River group, we have presented for our study by far 

 the most useful and interesting deposit which occurs in this portion of 

 New Brunswick, if not indeed in the whole province. Recognising 

 its economical importance as a rich metalliferous series, it has been 

 one of the special objects of the present survey to ascertain minutely 

 the distribution, age, and characters of the rocks composing it, and to 

 mark its limits accurately as the great copper-bearing group of Lower 

 New Brunswick. Although the greater portion of the country occupied 

 by this series is still uncleared, and among the wildest and most rugged 

 in the province, we have so far succeeded in tracing out its rock 

 formations, that the Unfits of the latter may now be looked upon as 

 approximately fixed, at the same time that its age and productive 

 metalliferous character are satisfactorily established. As the details 

 of this examination are of great importance, I shall here describe the 

 observations made more minutely than in the case of the other 

 groups has been deemed necessary. 



" It will naturally be supposed that, forming as they do two members 

 of a single group, the Dadoxylon sandstone and Cordaite shales should 

 be intimately associated and occur together, and that the distribution 

 of the former should be a general indication of the position of the 

 latter. While, however, this is true as regards that portion of the 



