142 THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 



of Pennsylvania; and consequently would place the Millstone-grlt 

 and the Lower Carboniferous limestones and Lower Coal measures 

 on the parallel of the Devonian rocks. Such a sweeping change, 

 merely on the ground of similarity of mineral character, and in oppo- 

 sition to the evidence of fossils, and to the fact of the true Upper 

 Devonian occurring in its proper place in New Brunswick, would, 

 unless advocated by a geologist of the standing of Professor Lesley, 

 scarcely deserve notice. In the circumstances, however, I considered 

 it my duty to send to the Society in whose proceedings Professor 

 Lesley's paper appeared, and of which I have the honour to be a 

 Fellow, the following statement of objections to Professor Lesley's 

 views, which I give in full, with Professor Lesley's rejoinder and my 

 further explanations, because the points involved are of much import- 

 ance and incidentally bring out several very interesting considerations 

 in regard to the Coal formation. Their impoiiance in a practical 

 point of view may be judged from the fact to be noticed in the sequel, 

 that Professor Lesley's conclusions induced him to diminish by one 

 half the thickness of the Coal formation of Cape Breton, as ascer- 

 tained by Mr Brown, and thus to ignore altogether the extension to the 

 eastward of the Sydney coal-beds in rear of those of Glace Bay. I 

 have to thank Professor Lesley for the courtesy with which, as 

 Secretary to the Philosophical Society, he attended to my communi- 

 cations, and the fairness with which he met my objections; and 

 although I know that he must be (I hope I may say, have been) in 

 eiTor in this point, it is scarcely necessary to say that there is no one 

 for whose geological acumen I entertain more respect. 



Note on Mr Lesley's Paper on the Coal Measures of Cape Breton. 



The new facts and general considerations on the Nova Scotia coal- 

 field contained in this paper are of the highest interest to all who 

 have worked at the geology of Nova Scotia, I think it my duty, 

 however, to take exception to some of the statements, which, I think, 

 a larger collection of facts would have induced Mr. Lesley himself 

 to modify. My objections may be stated under the following heads : — 



(L) It is scarcely safe to institute minute comparisons between the 

 enormously developed coal measures of Nova Scotia and the thinner 

 contemporary deposits of the West, any more than it woidd be to 

 compare the great marine limestones of the period at the West with 

 the slender representatives of that part of the group to the eastward. 



(2.) There is the best evidence that the coal measures of Nova 

 Scotia never mantled over the Devonian and Silurian hills of the 

 Province, but were, on the contrary, deposited in more or less separate 

 areas at their sides. 



