IQQ THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 



V. — Nova Scotia a7id Neiu Brunswick. 



In these provinces the older geological structure is 

 different from that in Prince Edward Island, the country 

 consisting of Carboniferous and Triassic plains, with 

 ranges of older hills, often metamorphic, and attaining 

 elevations of 1,200 feet or more. It may, perhaps, be 

 best in the first instance to present a summary of the 

 phenomena, as I have given them in my Acadian 

 Geology, and to add such additional facts and inferences 

 as the present state of the subject may require. 



The beds observed may be arranged as follows, in 

 descending order : 



1. Gravel and sand beds, and ancient gravel ridges 

 and beaches, indicating the action of shallow water, and 

 strong currents and waves. Travelled boulders occur in 

 connection with these beds. 



2. Stratified clay with shells, showing quiet deposition 

 in deeper water. 



3. Unstratified boulder-clay, indicating, probably, the 

 united action of ice and water. 



4. Peaty deposits, belonging to a land-surface preceding 

 the deposit of the boulder-clay. 



As the third of these formations is the most important 

 and generally diffused in Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 

 wick, we shall attend to it first, and notice the relation of 

 the others to it. 



The unstratified drift and boulder-clay, which occurs 

 chiefly at the lower levels of the country, varies from a 

 stiff clay to loose sand, and its composition and color 

 generally depend upon those of the underlying and neigh- 

 bouring rocks. Thus, over sandstone it is arenaceous, 

 over shales argillaceous, and over conglomerate and hard 



