IN NOVA SCOTIA FLETCHER. 327 



shales and many large seams of coal, seemed so anomalous, that 

 Sir William Logan naturally set aside as untenable the supposi- 

 tion of contemporaneity with the Albion coal measures, tacitly 

 classified the conglomerate beneath the latter, but coloured it on 

 his map of the Pictou coal field as distinct from both the Coal 

 Measures and the Millstone Grit. " No rocks," he says, 1 " having 

 the typical character of this conglomerate appear to have been 

 brought to the surface by either the south or the east fault, or 

 by Mr. Hartley's west fault. This does not, however, disprove 

 their possible presence beneath the whole of the productive area 

 abutting against these faults and constituting the base of Dr, 

 Dawson's Middle Coal formation, as inferred by Mr. Hartley." 



" This inference seems to be supported by the presence, 

 immediately on the summit of the conglomerate, of the coal 

 seam worked by Mr. William Eraser (Moose) for the burning of 

 his limestone, and another said to overlie it; and although the 

 occurrence of these is not strengthened by the known existence 

 of any of the larger workable coal seams in the Pictou synclinal, 

 the deposits of which have yet to be examined by the officers of 

 the Survey, it would not be surprising to find, in a country 

 apparently so broken by great dislocations, that the absence of 

 the larger seams may be due to a structure resulting from some 

 of these faults, of as important a character as those affecting 

 the productive part of the field above New Glasgow." 



Since 1869, however, the district referred to has been closely 

 examined by the Geological Survey, shown to be broken by no 

 great dislocations, but on the contrary to be occupied by 

 undisturbed strata which conformably overlie the conglomerate 

 and are equivalent to those above the productive coal measures 

 of the Joggins section. A glance at the geological map of this 

 district will suffice to show that the conglomerate is the natural 

 base of the Upper Carboniferous or Permian rocks of Merigomish, 

 Pictou, River John and Wangh River. 



In support of Sir J. W. Dawson's later views it has been 

 stated that the fossils of the strata immediately overlying the 



1 Geol. Surv. Rep. for 1866-69, page 52. 



