in. THE PROGRESS OF GEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION IN NOVA 

 SCOTIA. BY R. W. ELLS, LL.D., F. R. S. C., of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Canada. 



(Read 13th January, 190!.) 



Probably in no part of the Dominion of Canada is there a 

 more interesting field for geological research than is found in 

 Nova Scotia and in the sister province of New Brunswick. The 

 formations range from the top of the Triassic to the lowest known 

 rocks, presumably the fundamental gneiss, and there is a large 

 development of the strata peculiar to the Carboniferous, Devonian 

 and Cambrian systems, in all of which important geological ano! 

 economic problems are presented. 



It has been found impossible to classify and arrange the 

 different roc's formations of the maritime provinces in accordance 

 with the scheme of nomenclature laid down more than half a 

 century ago by the Geological Survey of the state of Nevr York> 

 and subsequently adopted by Sir W. E. Logan for the province 

 of Ontario and Quebec. In consequence of this difficulty, the 

 necessity has arisen of placing large groups of strata in division* 

 which have been designated by local names, and this feature has- 

 been the cause of some confusion to many persons who are not 

 familiar with the localities and the points of structure peculiar 

 to each. 



Too often, also, there has been an attempt made to parallel 

 the rock formations there found with those which they are sup- 

 posed to represent in England on the one hand, and in distant 

 portions of the United States on the other, ignoring the possibility 

 that the succession of life forms on the globe in early years may 

 not have moved forward simultaneously over the whole surface* 

 but that their distribution may have followed some law of evo- 

 lution or development which has not yet been sufficiently 

 considered. Geological problems in connection with certain 



(433) 



