COMPARISON WITH THE PENNSYLVANIA, ETC. 147 



Coal formation, admit of being readily ascertained, where good ex- 

 posures exist, as in Nova Scotia ; and it is to be borne in mind that 

 my investigations on this subject have extended over more than 

 twenty years, though many of the details ascertained have not yet 

 been published.* 



" 3. It should be understood that the Carboniferous system in Nova 

 Scotia consists of the following members : — 



"(1.) The Upper Coal Formation. 



" (2.) The Middle Coal Formation. 



" (3.) The Millstone-grit Series, represented in Nova Scotia by red 

 and gray sandstone, shale, and conglomerate, with a few fossil plants 

 and thin coal seams, not productive. 



" (4.) The Carboniferous Limestone, with the associated sandstones, 

 marls, gypsum, etc., and holding marine fossils, recognised by all 

 palgeontologists who iiave examined them as Carboniferous. 



" (5.) The Lower Coal Measures, holding some but not all of the 

 fossils of the Middle Coal formation, and thin coals, not productive ; 

 but differing both in flora and fauna from the Upper Devonian, which, 

 in New Brunswick, they overlie unconformably. 



"The principal, though not the only point in which Mr Lesley 

 differs from Logan, Lyell, Brown, and Dawson, is his entire omission 

 of No. 5 of the above series, and placing No. 3 in its room, as the 

 representative of the Lower Coal measures of Virginia and Penn- 

 sylvania. I have, I think, already made this sufficiently plain in the 

 fifth of my objections, already published ; but may add here that fossils 

 as well as stratigraphlcal position establish the real equivalency of 

 No. 5, and not No. 3, to the Lower Coal formation, as described by 

 Lesquereux in America, and by Goeppert in Europe ; and that it seems 

 strange that Mr Lesley, while suggesting minor and more dubious 

 parallelisms, declines to admit this identification, established by long 

 and careful investigations of several competent observers, and con- 

 firmed by the evidence of fossils." 



It will be seen from the above discussion, that the Carboniferous 

 series in Nova Scotia, though limited in area, is of great thickness ; 

 and that Avithin the limits of Acadia the strictly marine as well as the 

 coal-bearing portions of this great group of rocks arc represented with 

 a completeness not to be found in any one coal area of the United 

 States, where the marine limestones are enormously developed in the 

 west at the expense of the coal measures, and the latter at the 

 I expense of the marine members in the east. 



In the United States, however, the Lower Coal measure flora has 



* Since published — Journal of Geol. Society, May 18G6. 



