110 THE TRIAS OR NEW RED SANDSTONE. 



Society of London.* In this paper, the relations of the New Red to 

 the okler formations in this province were for the first time accurately 

 defined, by ascertaining its structure, and its actual superposition on 

 Carboniferous strata, in the cliffs on the north side of Cobequid Bay 

 and Minas Basin, and applying the facts thus obtained to the larger 

 area of New Red on the south side of the bay, in the manner indicated 

 by the following quotation : — 



" It appears from the facts above stated, that the red sandstones of 

 Cornwallis and liorton, though not seen in contact with the Carbon- 

 iferous rocks, extend parallel to their disturbed strata with uniform 

 north-west dips, and passing beyond them with the same dip, rest 

 unconformably on the older slaty series. This arrangement, I think, 

 satisfactorily proves that these red sandstones and the overlying trap 

 are really newer than the Carboniferous shales of Horton, and uncon- 

 formable to them." 



" Eastward of the estuary of the Avon, the country as far as the 

 Shubenacadie River is occupied by a deposit of reddish, gray, and 

 purple sandstones and marls, with large beds of gypsum and limestones 

 abounding In marine shells. This gypsiferous series is much fractured 

 and disturbed, and is in many places associated with dark shales con- 

 taining fossil plants, like those of Ilorton Bluff, and thin seams of coal. 

 This association of the gypsiferous series with dark fossiliferous shales 

 occurs at Halfway River, where coarse brown and gray sandstones, 

 with imperfect casts of fossil trunks of trees, and a thick bed of anhy- 

 drite and common gypsum, rest conformably on the continuation of 

 the dark beds of Horton Bluff. The carboniferous date of this gyp- 

 siferous series has been fully established by Mr (now Sir Charles) 

 Lyell ; and though it contains red sandstones with veins of gypsum 

 like those of Blomidon, these never extend to so great a thickness as 

 that of the Cornwallis sandstones, without alternating with fossiliferous 

 shales or limestones, or with beds of gypsum. For this reason, in 

 connexion with the undisturbed condition of the Cornwallis sand- 

 stones, their apparent unconformability to the Carboniferous shales of 

 Horton, and their identity in mineral character and association with 

 trappean rocks, with the red sandstones of Swan Creek and Five 

 Islands, I have no hesitation In separating them from the gypsiferous 

 series and Including them in the New Red Sandstone formation." 



From the same paper, I quote tlie following general statements as 

 to the age and mode of formation of the New Red Sandstone and Trap, 

 as affording in the most condensed form the conclusions at which I 

 had then arrived : — 



* Journal of Geological Society, iv. p. 50. 



