VIII. GEOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE IN NOVA SCOTIA. BY 

 HUGH FLETCHER, ESQ., B. A., of the Geological Survey 

 of Canada. 



(Communicated on the Uth Mfiy, 1900.) 



THE DEVONIAN. 



In the summer of 1876, a great series of metamorphic rocks, 

 cut by masses of granite and trap, was separated in Cape 

 Breton from the overlying Carboniferous conglomerate made 

 up of their detritus. These rocks were then traced from Loch 

 Lomond to St. Peters, through Isle Madame and into Guysboro 

 and Antigonish counties, as recorded in the reports of the 

 Geological Survey between 1877 and 1881. 



Localities were described at which the Carboniferous, com- 

 paratively unaltered, comes in contact with and contains pebbles 

 of these metamorphic rocks ; several sections indicating a thick- 

 ness of at least 10,000 feet were given in detail and mention 

 was made of carbonized plants, fish remains, ostracods and 

 other fossils found in many of the beds, the plants including 

 forms like Psilophyton, a characteristic Devonian genus. 



Above them lies a formation,, several thousands of feet in 

 thickness, containing marine fossils of the Carboniferous Lime- 

 stone series of England and characterized everywhere from 

 Newfoundland to the western boundary of New Brunswick, a 

 distance of 450 miles, by the occurrence of thick beds of 

 gypsum ; while at their base lie about 3,000 feet of limestones 

 and other beds of marine origin, shown by Dr. Honeyman, 

 in one of the finest pieces of combined stratigraphical and 

 palseontological geology yet done in Nova Scotia, to range at 

 Arasaig from Medina to Lower Helderberg. 



Rocks in this position, precisely similar in lithological 

 character, had been called Devonian in New Brunswick, New- 

 foundland, Gaspe' and on Logan's map of the Pictou Coal field, 

 and this name was accordingly applied to them in Cape Brecon. 



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