174 THE ICK A(JK IX CANADA. 



modern sea, tlie riei.stoceiie beds assume a mueli more 

 southern aspect in their fossils, tlie boreal forms altooether 

 disappearinj^'. For a very full exhibition of these facts, 1 

 may refer to Dr. Packard's paper. 



The stratified sand and (gravel of Nova Scotia rests 

 upon and is newer than the l)oulder-clay, and is also 

 newer than the stratified marine clays above referred to. 

 Its age is probably that of the Saxicava sand of the St. 

 Lawrence valley. The former relati(jn may often be seen 

 in coast sections or river banks, and occasionally in road 

 cuttings. I observed some years ago an instructive 

 illustration of this fact in a bank on the shore a little to 

 the eastward of Merigoniish harbour. At this jdace the 

 lower part of the Ijank consists of clay and sand with 

 angular stones, principally sandstones. Upon this rests a 

 bed of fine sand and small rounded gravel with lavers of 

 coarser pebl)les. The gravel is separated from the drift 

 below l)y a layer of the same sort of angular stones that 

 appear in the drift, showing that the currents which 

 deposited the upper bed have washed away some of the 

 finer portions of the drift before the sand and gravel were 

 thrown down. In this section, as well as in most others 

 that I have examined, the hnver part of the stratified 

 gravel is finer than the upper })art, and contains more sand. 



In some cases we can trace the ])ebbles of the gravels 

 to ancient conglomerate rocks which have furnished them 

 by their decay; but in other instances the peitbles may 

 have been rounded by the waters that deposited them in 

 their present place. In places, however, where old pebble 

 rocks do not occur, we sometimes find, instead of gravel, 

 beds of fine laminated sand. A very remarkable instance 

 of the connection of superficial gravels with ancient 

 Debbie rocks occurs in the countv of Pictou. In :he coal 



