REPORT 



CAMBRIAN ROCKS OF CAPE BRETON 



In the spring of 1899 I received the following letter from the late Instructions 

 Dr. G. M. Dawson, at that time Director of the Canadian Geological ]yj Dawson. 

 Survey : 



' DEAR DR. MATTHEW, In thinking over work for the coming 

 summer it occurs to me to ask whether it would be agreeable to you 

 to undertake a field examination, for such time as you could spare, of 

 the Cambrian rocks in Cape Breton island, followed subsequently by 

 such study of the fossils obtained as might be necessary for their 

 determination and description. We seem to know very little about 

 the Cambrian and possible Cambro Silurian rocks of Cape Breton, 

 although^ Mr. Fletcher, on stratigraphical grounds, seems to think that 

 there is a great thickness, which may represent a number of horizons.' 



These clauses of Dr. Dawson's letter seemed to present to me the 

 kind of investigation which he wished made in Cape Breton, and were 

 taken as directive of the work which I subsequently arranged with 

 him to do there. The short time at my disposal in three succes- 

 sive summers was given to this exploration, and intervals of leisure 

 during the three years have been spent in working up the results of 

 the field exploration. 



I was guided by Mr. Hugh Fletcher in selecting areas where it was Mr. Hugh 

 thought the best results could be obtained, and for this reason my assistance. 

 work was confined to the Barachois basin on St. Andrews Channel, to 

 Indian Brook basin and several smaller areas on East Bay, and to the 

 most important parts of the valley of the Mira river. There are some 

 other small areas of Cambrian rocks in the island of Cape Breton, but 

 these Mr. Fletcher did not think would yield results such as I sought, 

 and so they were not visited. 



The object of my visit then was to study the thickness, succession 

 and distribution of the several members of the Cambrian system ; and 



