THE BRIAN, OR DEVONIAN. 19 



it is named, and attains therein its maximum thickness and develop- 

 ment, appears on the eastern coast entirely in the form of sandstones 

 and shales, which may be compared with those of the Old Red Sand- 

 stone of Scotland and England. They differ entirely in mineral 

 character from the great limestone- and shale-deposits of the interior 

 of America, where, in the Province of Ontario, the Corniferous Lime- 

 stone is perhaps the richest of all the PaljBozoic limestones in fossil 

 corals, and indicates a long continuance of truly marine conditions. 

 These beds abound in fossil plants, and, locally, in remains of fishes, 

 and both the fishes and the plants are generically similar to those of 

 Britain, and divisible into two series, representing the lower and the 

 upper members respectively. The beds do not appear, however, to 

 be lake-deposits, but rather estuarine and littoral. They have been 

 fully described in the papers referred to below.* 



In the Bale de Chaleur, for example, the lowest series is charac- 

 terized by PsUophyton and Nematophyton^ and by fishes of the genera 

 Cephalaspis, Coccosteus, Cienacanthus, and Homacanthus.-\ The upper 

 division is characterized by ferns of the genera Archceopteris and 

 Platyphyllum, and by fishes of the genera Pterichthys, Diplacanthus, 

 Phaneropleuron, Glyptolepis, Cheirolepis, and a new genus named by 

 Whiteaves Eusthenopteron.\ 



The only true marine portion of the system in the Maritime 

 Provinces is the lower part, corresponding to the Oriskany of the 

 interior, and this may perhaps be regarded as an equivalent of the 

 Downton Sandstones of England. Additional facts as to its fossils 

 are given in the first of my papers above referred to. 



The greatest granitic intnisions of Nova Scotia belong to the close 

 of the Devonian, as do many granitic masses in New Brunswick and 

 Quebec. These are the equivalents of the Devonian and Cornish 

 granites, though perhaps a little earlier in date, and are also repre- 

 sented by the felsites of the Scottish Devonian. 



The remarkably rich flora of the Erian of the east of Canada still 

 holds its position as probably the most copious known in this age, and 

 since 1878 I have been able to add a few species and some new 



facts. § 



Professor Penhallow has also, in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society, illustrated more fully the nature of the remarkable tree-like 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vols. xv. and xviii. 



f Dawson's Report on Erian Plants. Whiteaves, Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., vol. iv. 

 " On Devonian Fishes." 

 % Ibid. 

 g Report on Erian Fossil Plants, Part ii. 



