118 THE TRIAS OR NEW RED SANDSTONE. 



Coal Foiinatiou, which in some particulars they closely resemble, or 

 to the lower part of the New Red Sandstone ; and in either case the 

 sandstones of the greater part of Prince Edward Island will be New 

 Red. Unfortunately I could not observe whether the latter are 

 superimposed conformably or miconformably on the lower beds, and 

 the fossils 'are hardly sufficiently well characterized to indicate to 

 which epoch they belong. With the view of obtaining from them 

 all the information they are capable of affording, I have examined 

 the fossil wood of this locality, and some specimens found lying 

 loose on the surface at Des Sables and other places in the island, 

 with the following results : — 



Thin slices of the specimens from Orwell Point show under the 

 microscope in the transverse direction a dense tissue of quadrangular 

 cells, arranged in rows, with numerous but narrow medullary rays. 

 Longitudinal slices in the direction of the medullary rays show 

 elongated parallel cells, with traces of hexagonal discs on the walls 

 of the cells, there being two or more rows of discs in each cell, though 

 these structures are not very distinct. These characters are those 

 of coniferous wood (that of the pine tribe), and of that pai'ticular 

 type of coniferous trees which appears in the northern hemisphere 

 only in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic rocks. The specimens from 

 other parts of Prince Edward Island show similar structures, some 

 of them even more distinctly. 



In so far as I can make it out, the structure is that of the genus 

 Dadoxylon^ and approaclies to that of D. matermrium, the most 

 common fossil pine of the Upper Coal Formation in Nova Scotia. The 

 evidence of this fossil wood thus tends to indicate an older geological 

 period than that of the New Red Sandstone, — assuming the latter to be 

 of Triassic age, — and would give some countenance to the belief that 

 these beds of the south coast of Prince Edward Island at Des Sables 

 and Gallows Point, if not Pei'mian, may represent the upper beds of 

 the Newer Coal Formation, to which, as they appear in Eastern Nova 

 Scotia, these rocks bear considerable resemblance. The beds of the 

 Newer Coal Formation in Eastern Nova Scotia are usually only slightly 

 inclined, and are arranged in flat synclinals and anticlinals. It is 

 quite possible that one of the latter crossing the strait may appear rising 

 from under the New Red Sandstone. This view, if established, would 

 be of importance in answei'ing the question whether coal is likely to 

 be found in Prince Edward Island, a question to which we may 

 return in the sequel. Whatever the age of these beds, they are 

 probably the oldest known in the island, and the red sandstones 

 resting on them may be assumed to be Triassic. 



