116 GEOLOGICAL AGE OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. WATSON. 



Because of the want of distinct demarcation between the 

 Upper Carboniferous and the next succeeding Lower Permian 

 systems, Sir William Dawson assigned the lowest and middle 

 rocks to his "Permo-Carboniferous" system, but, from the find- 

 ing at New London of the fossil jaw of an animal, named by 

 Dr. Leidy Bathygnathtis borealis, which he (as now transpires, 

 erroneously), concluded was a triassic dinosaur a conclusion 

 accepted by the great palaeontologist Cope Sir William Daw- 

 son assigned the district in which the fossil was found to the 

 Trias, the age next succeeding to the Permian. 

 i Sir William Dawson's latest expressed opinions as to the 

 red sandstones of Prince Edward Island are contained in his 

 Handbook of Canadian Geology (1889), pages 97 to 101, from 

 which the following summary is compiled: 



The Permian System. The Permo-Carboniferous red sand- 

 stones of Prince Edward Island and eastern Nova Scotia are 

 typical of the Lower Permian. Their fossils are for the most 

 part generioally similar to those of the Carboniferous. The 

 Upper Permian is not represented in Canada. The Permian, or 

 Permo-Carboniferous of Prince Edward Island does not yet 

 admit of any division into distinct groups and it rests conform- 

 ably on the upper coal formation without any stratigraphical 

 break. It is characterized by a prevalence of sandstones and 

 shales coloured by the red oride of iron. 



The Triassic System,. The Bunter sandstone (the lowest of 

 the three divisions which gave its name Trias to the system) 

 is represented in Canada by the lower new red sandstone of 

 the Bay' of Fundy and Prince Edward Island, associated with 

 trappean rocks. Its fossils are conifers and cycads, and the 

 footprints of dinosaurs. The limestones of the Middle Trias 

 of Germany and eastern France are not found in eastern 

 America. To the Keuper sandstone (the uppermost of the 

 triad series) belong the upper sandstones of Prince Edward 

 Island and the Bay of Fundy, where its trappean beds form 



