DEVONIAN OF NOVA SCOTIA. 501 



west, near the junction, and become slightly contorted and altered 

 into gneiss, and filled with granite veins ; but in some places they 

 retain traces of their fossils to within 200 yards of the granite. The 

 intrusion of this great mass of granite without material disturbance 

 of the strike of the slates conveys the impression that it has melted 

 quietly through the stratified deposits, or that these have been locally 

 crystallized into granite in situ. 



At Moose River the iron ore and its associated beds recur on the 

 western side of the granite before mentioned, but in a state of greater 

 metamorphism than at Nictaux. The iron is here in the state of mag- 

 netic ore, but still holds fossil shells of the same species with those of 

 Nictaux. 



Still farther westward, at Bear River, near the bridge by which 

 the main road crosses this stream, beds equivalent to those of Nictaux 

 occur with a profusion of fossils. The iron ore is not seen, but there 

 are highly fossiliferous slates and coarse arenaceous limestone, and a 

 bed of gray sandstone with numerous indistinct impressions apparently 

 of plants. In addition to several of the fossils found at Nictaux, these 

 beds aff'ord Tentaculites, an A trypa., apparently identical with an un- 

 described species very characteristic of the Devonian sandstones of 

 Gaspe, and a coral which Mr Billings identifies with the Pleuro- 

 dictyum problematiciau^ Goldfuss, a form which occurs in the lower 

 Devonian in England, and on the continent of Europe. 



Westward of Bear River, rocks resembling in mineral character 

 those previously described, and probably of Devonian and Upper 

 Silurian age, extend with similar strike, but in an altei'ed condition, 

 and in so far as I have been able to ascertain, destitute of fossils, quite 

 to the western extremity of the peninsula, where they turn more to 

 the southward, and are as I suppose, repeated by a sharp synclinal 

 fold, after which they are succeeded by the Atlantic coast series, of 

 lower Silurian date, and consisting of quartzite and clay slate, with 

 chlorite and hornblende slates at Yarmouth and its vicinity, and 

 further to the S. E. of mica slate and gneiss. 



I cannot certainly indicate the Devonian system in other parts of 

 Nova Scotia. There are, however, in various places, at the margin of 

 the Carboniferous areas, or projecting through these beds, I'ocks which 

 may be Devonian, though, not having afforded characteristic fossils, 

 their age must remain doubtful, as they might possibly prove to be 

 altered membci'S of the Lower Carboniferous or rocks of Silurian 

 date. They are usually hard gray or purplish sandstone or quartzites, 

 associated with gray or purplish slates or shales. Such rocks occur in 

 the flanks of the Cobequid Hills, in the vicinity of Salmon River, and 



