32 THE PERMO-CARBONIFEROUS. 



developed elsewhere. The information obtained in the survey of 

 Prince Edward Island in 1871, and followed up by re-examination of 

 the upper members of the Carboniferous in Nova Scotia, has enabled 

 me to give in a paper, presented to the Geological Society of Lon- 

 don in 1874, a more definite reply to this question, and to affirm 

 that we have at least a Permo-carboniferous formation closing the 

 Carboniferous period, and whose fossils indicate that it represents 

 beds of transition between the Carboniferous and Permian. This 

 passing of the Coal formation upwards into the Permian is not without 

 parallel elsewhere. It is observed both in England and Western 

 America, and has led many to regard the Permian rather as an 

 upward extension of the Carboniferous than as a distinct group. 

 Where best developed, however, as in England and Germany, the 

 Permian or Dyas is certainly to be regarded as a distinct formation ; 

 and even where its beds are absent, the lapse of long time is indicated 

 by the disturbances of the Carboniferous and the entire change of life 

 on entering the Trias. For the details of the facts bearing on the 

 Permo-carboniferous of Prince Edward Island and Eastern Nova 

 Scotia I must refer to the paper above mentioned,* but may give 

 here some of the more salient points. 



The Upper Coal formation was first distinguished as a separate 

 member of the Carboniferous system in Eastern Nova Scotia by the 

 writer, in a paper published in the first volume of the Journal of the 

 Geological Society, in 1845 — and was defined to be an upper or 

 overlying series superimposed on the productive Coal-measures, and 

 distinguished by the absence of thick coal-seams, by the prevalence 

 of red and gray sandstones and red shales, and by a peculiar group 

 of vegetable fossils. 



Subsequently, in my paper on the South Joggins-J- and in Aca- 

 dian Geology, this formation was identified with the upper series 

 of the Joggins section, Divisions 1 and 2 of Sir William Logan's 

 sectional list, and with the Upper Barren Measures of the English 

 Coal-fields, and the third or upper zone of Geinitz in the Coal for- 

 mation of Saxony. 1; 



Still more recently, in the " Report on the Geology of Prince Edward 

 Island," 1871, I have referred to the upper part of the same forma- 

 tion, the lower series of sandstones in Prince Edward Island not pre- 

 viously separated from the overlying Trias § 



In Prince Edward Island, however, where the highest beds of this 



* Journal Geological Society, August 1874. 



f Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. x. | Ac. Geol., p. 149. 



§ Report on the Geological Structure of Prince Edward Island. 



