IV. NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF NEWFOUNDLAND. BY T. C. 

 WESTON, F. G. S. A., LATE OF THE GEOLOGICAL SUR- 

 VEY OF CANADA. 



(Read llth May, 1896.) 



The following notes have been written partly to record a few 

 palseontological facts not mentioned elsewhere and partly to give 

 a brief outline of the various geological formations and show the 

 similiarity in the fossil faunas of Newfoundland to the members 

 of the upper and lower silurian of Canada. Should the reader 

 wish for a more detailed account of the geology, he will find it 

 in the admirable reports of the late director of the Geological 

 Survey of Newfoundland, Alex. Murray, also in those of his 

 assistant, Jas. P. Howley, and of the late Sir W. E. Logan, Geo- 

 logical Survey of Canada, 1 863. 



The Laurentian. In considering the more interesting 

 geological features of the island, we shall commence with the 

 base of the great geological column, which in Canada has an 

 estimated thickness of 32,750 feet. 



The Laurentian rocks of Newfoundland are similar to those of 

 Canada, consisting of gneiss, granite, syenite, limestone, quartz- 

 ite, mica schist, etc., all of which are frequently cut by granite 

 and other dykes. . They form a large portion of the island which, 

 as Mr. Murray remarks, " has materially contributed to produce 

 the remarkable geological aud topographical features which it 

 presents." Probably it was the chopped up appearance of the 

 Laurentian and Huronian formations which caused him to 

 remark that " Newfoundland was formed of the chippings of the 

 world." The Laurentian of Newfoundland, so far as we know, 

 is totally destitute of the remains of either vegetable or animal 

 structure, and therefore must still be considered azoic, although 

 this term has been abandoned by some geologists in the nomen- 

 clature of Canadian rocks owing to the discovery in the Upper 



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