CARBONIFEROUS DISTRICT OF COLCHESTER AND HANTS. 263 



associated marls, the Lower Carboniferous series of Nova Scotia and 

 New Brunswick, resembles the corresponding formation in Great 

 Britain and the United States, to the fossils of which its shells and 

 corals have also a very marked resemblance, and several of the species 

 are identical. 



The rocks we have examined at Windsor may serve as a specimen 

 of those that occupy nearly the whole low country of Hants, the 

 greater part of the Carboniferous area of Colchester, and the long 

 belt extending up the Musquodoboit River. The limestones and 

 gypsums, which form the most important membei's of the series, appear 

 at a great number of places, and are extensively quarried. The 

 principal localities are the St Croix River, Newport, Kennetcook 

 River, Walton, Noel, AVhite's or Big Plaster Rock, and other places 

 on the Shubenacadie, Brookfield, Onslow, Stewiacke, and Upper and 

 Middle Musquodoboit. One of the finest natural exposures of gypsum 

 in the province is on the St Croix River, a few miles from Windsor. 

 Here the gypsum forms a long range of cliffs of snowy whiteness. 

 This cliff consists principally of the variety of gypsum named " hard 

 plaster," or " sharkstone," by the quai-rymen ; the latter name 

 referring to the rough shagreen-like texture of its weathered surfaces. 

 It is Anhi/drite, or gypsum destitute of the combined water which 

 gives to the ordinary variety its softness and its usefulness as a 

 material for modelling and plastering. Anhydrite occurs in connexion 

 with most of the beds of gypsum, generally forming separate beds, but 

 sometimes mixed in large masses or nodules, or minute transparent 

 crystals, with the common plaster. It is not at present applied to 

 any useful purpose, being too hard to be profitably ground for agri- 

 cultural uses. It may, however, be used as a substitute for marble, 

 for the internal decoration of buildings, and some of the varieties in 

 the cliflfs of the St Croix are well adapted to this use, and could be 

 procured in any quantity. 



Having thus described the Lower Carboniferous rocks as they occur 

 at Horton and Windsor, I shall now attempt to give a general view 

 of their arrangement in the area now under consideration, as well as 

 their relations to certain limited tracts of coal measures which rest 

 upon them, especially in the northern part of the district. To effect 

 this, I shall take advantage of the sections afforded by the Folly and 

 De Bert Rivers, and the Shubenacadie ; and shall describe these as 

 they would appear to an observer descending the soutliern slope of 

 the Cobequids, following the coui'se of the Folly River, crossing 

 Cobequid Bay, and ascending the Shubenacadie to the Grand Lake. 



On the Folly River, about eight miles from its mouth, we leave 



