SECTION AT THE FERN LEDGES. 513 



Tlie Devonian rocks appear at several places along the coast 

 of New Brunswick, between fcjt John and St Andrews, at which 

 place they are connected with the Devonian sandstones of Perry, 

 Maine. According to Professor Hind, an area of about twenty-five 

 square miles near Campbellton on the Restigouche, consists of 

 Devonian rocks, an extension or outlier of the Devonian of Gaspe. 

 It is possible that some of the belts of Devonian rocks known to 

 exist in the interior of Maine may extend into Northern New 

 P>runswick ; but this has not, I believe, been as yet certainly as- 

 certained. 



I must refer to Professor Bailey's Report for more full details 

 on the Devonian of New Brunswick, and shall now turn to the 

 more particular consideration of the highly fossiliferous members 

 of the group as developed near St John, reserving for a subsequent 

 chapter the consideration of the fossil plants. 



Section at the " Fern Ledges,^' near St John. 



Much interest attaches to that part of the St John section described 

 above as the Little River group, on account of its fossil plants and 

 insects ; and for this reason I give below an abridgment of the 

 detailed section prepared by Mr Hartt for Professor Bailey's Report, 

 and which will serve to show the resemblance as to mineral character 

 between these beds and those of the Coal formation. Mr Hartt re- 

 marks in introducing his section : — 



" Of the several localities for fossil plants in the vicinity of St John, 

 the richest and most interesting is that of the ' Fern Ledges.' These 

 are a series of ledges exposed on the sea-shore, between high and 

 low-water mark, at the foot of the properties of Messrs N. S. Demill 

 and Zebedee Ring, Duck Cove, Lancaster, about a mile west of the 

 town of Carleton. The ledges are formed by the outcropping edges 

 of beds of sandstone and shale belonging to the Little River group 

 of Mr Matthew. These have a strike of about W. 10° N., and a 

 southerly or seaward dip of about 45°. This strike corresponds very 

 nearly to the trend of the shore, along which, rounded and much worn 

 by wave action and buried in sea- weed, their edges run in long ridges. 

 The shale-beds, in which the plants occur, are, on account of their 

 softness, everywhere so worn away by the waves from between the 

 enclosing sandstones, as to be in only a few places accessible. 



" Only near high-water mark are the ledges of any height, and from 

 these the plant-bearing shale-beds arc almost entirely removed. The 

 ledges extend along the shore for some 325 paces, with a width of 

 300 feet, more or less, exposing a thickness of strata of about 150 



2 L 



