315 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE CARBONIFEEOUS FEUIOD— Continued. 



CARBONIFEROUS DISTRICTS OF PICTOU, ANTIGONISH, AND GUYSBOROUGH ; 

 ISOLATED PATCHES AT MARGAREt's BAY AND CHESTER BASIN. 



Carboniferous District of Pictoii. 



In noticing this and the following districts, I shall avail myself of the 

 details into which we have entered, to enable me to condense my 

 descriptions, and to dwell only on those features that may be peculiar, 

 or very dissimilar from those already described. In entering the 

 Pictou coal district from Colchester, we pass over disturbed and some- 

 what altered Lower Carboniferous sandstones and conglomerates, with 

 intrusive and metamorphic rocks on either side, forming outlying 

 masses of the Eastern Cobequids. The first characteristic and dis- 

 tinctly marked beds that we find are the limestones on the upper part 

 of the West River. At the Salt Springs these limestones, with their 

 accompanying sandstones, are seen in a vertical position, and with 

 their fissures filled with micaceous iron-ore. — a very decided proof of 

 igneous action. There appears to be in this part of the Pictou district 

 a considerable area of altered Carboniferous rocks, showing that in this 

 vicinity active volcanic agencies have subsisted after the deposition 

 of the Lower Carboniferous series. A little farther down the AVest 

 River, at M'Kay's Lime Rock, we find the limestone unaltered, and 

 containing Crinoids, Terehratulce, Fenestella, Corals^ and other fossils, 

 similar to those of the limestones of Hants and Colchester, and more 

 especially to the loioer limestones already mentioned. Having thus 

 reached a known member of the Carboniferous series, we may take a 

 general glance over the district, with the aid of the map, and mark the 

 distribution of its principal rock formations. 



From the West River we can trace the limestones and other members 

 of the Lower Carboniferous series to the East River, along the valley 

 of which they enter, in the Ibrm of a narrow bay, into the metamorphic 

 district to the southward. Beyond tlie promontory of these latter 

 rocks bounding this inlet on its eastern side, the Lower Carboniferous 



