10 THE PERMIAN. 



Coal- formation," a name afterwards changed by him, in so far as the 

 upper beds were concerned, to " Permo-carboniferous." 



In 1871, in conjunction with Dr Harrington, the writer insti- 

 tuted a geological examination of the whole Island, at the instance 

 of the local Government, and published a report of fifty pages, 

 with a map, sections, and figures of fossils. In this report were 

 described and catalogued twenty species of fossil plants, of which 

 sixteen were referred to the Permo-carboniferous and four to the 

 Triassic. In the report referred to, it was proposed to arrange 

 the strata of the Island in two groups, Permo-carboniferous and 

 Triassic, and to divide the latter into a lower and upper series, and 

 in our map we limited the distribution of the former group to those 

 regions in which it was distinctly characterized by infra-position and 

 by fossils, thus leaving the greater part of the surface to appear as 

 Triassic. Since 1871, Mr Francis Bain has been able to discover 

 fossil plants of Permo-carboniferous types in several places in which 

 they were not found by us, thus extending the range of that forma- 

 tion, and he also suggests a threefold division of the beds, but would 

 refer to Permian that part of the series which we designated Lower 

 Trias. Mr Ells of the Geological Survey of Canada, who has recently 

 re-examined the rocks of Prince Edward Island (Report of Survey, 

 1883-4), not only extends the limits of the lower series, but regards 

 the Trias as very limited, and not clearly distinguishable from the 

 Permo-carboniferous ; but in this last respect I cannot but think he 

 exaggerates the diflSculty occasioned by the low dips of all the beds, 

 and the strong mineral resemblance of the Trias to the underlying 

 Permo-carboniferous, from whose disintegration it has undoubtedly 

 been derived. 



Mr Bain's subdivision is stated by him as follows : * — 



" First. — The lower series of gray, brown, and red sandstones and 

 shales, termed by Sir William Dawson Permo-carboniferous, pre- 

 senting a thickness of about 800 feet. This series contains all the 

 more decidedly Carboniferous plants found on the Island, as Catamites 

 suckovii, C. vistii, C. cannceformis, Badoxylon materiarium, and 

 Trigonocarpum, associated, however, with plants of a Permian 

 character. 



" Secondly.— A middle series, reposing conformably, or nearly so, on 

 the last, and consisting of 2000 feet of red sandstones and shales, — 

 the shales, and also calcareous sandstones, predominating in the lower 

 part. This series is distributed over the greater part of the Island. 

 It is of greatly reduced thickness in the western parts. It contains 

 * Canadian Record of Science, July 1885. 



