190 



whole trunk was coal, except a flattened portion resembling the pith 

 and extending through the centre of the tree from one extremity to 

 the other. At the spot on the Moose River, where the coal-mea- 

 sures rest on old red sandstone, a fossil tree 30 inches in diameter is 

 seen in black shale and dark-coloured sandstone. 



Besides the coal district already described there is an area near 

 Falmouth and Windsor of seventy square miles, in which thoiigh 

 the coal has not been discovered, yet the ferns, Stigmaria, and other 

 fossil plants which the sandstones and shales of that area contain, 

 sufficiently establish the point that it belongs to the coal-measures. 



6. New red sandstone. — At the Jolly and Debert Rivers the coal- 

 measures are overlaid by a red sandstone, associated with gypsum 

 and limestone. In the districts of Windsor, Rawdon, and Douglas, 

 to the south of the Basin of Mines, and in that of Truro on the east 

 of that basin, a bright red micaceous sandstone prevails, alternating 

 with strata of red shale and indurated clay, and containing calca- 

 reous, gypseous, and red argillaceous marls. It is characterised by 

 containing thick beds of compact gypsum and limestone, and by its 

 being the seat of salt springs. The author regards it as agreeing 

 in geological position with the sandstone above-mentioned. 



7. Int)~usive Igneous Rocks. — The whole north-west coast of the 

 peninsula next the Bay of Fundy, from Briers' Island to Cape Blow- 

 me-down, is oiae continuous narrow belt of trap, greenstone, and 

 amygdaloid. This belt is bounded to the south-east in its southern 

 part by St. Mary's Bay, and from the head of that bay to the Basin 

 of Mines, by the old red sandstone formation already described. The 

 trap overlies and pierces the sandstone at several points in its 

 course along the Bay of Fundy. At Cape Blow-me-down it forms 

 a perpendicular cliff 400 feet high, and rests on strata of sandstone. 



If the axis of the Cobequial ridge be prolonged towards the west 

 until it meets the head of the Bay of Fundy, that axis, after pursuing 

 the Silurian zone which encircles the Cobequial granite, will enter 

 a trappean ridge composed principally of red felspar and porphyry, 

 about seven miles broad. The western extremity of the axis 

 on the Bay of Fundy is at Cape Chignecto, to the north-east of 

 which lies Chignecto Bay. The trap of Cape Chignecto is of two 

 varieties, the red and the green. The red contains several large 

 veins of sulphate of barytes. Near Shoolie, and at a place called 

 Cranberry Point, a conglomerate appears which consists of masses 

 of trap and of sandstone. It is near Apple River that the coal 

 sb-ata, which extend to the north of this ridge of trap, come in con- 

 tact with it. The trap forms the axis from which the coal-measures 

 dip away until they become horizontal at Little Shoolie. 



May 24.— WiUiam Cubitt, Esq., F.R.S., \^.P. Inst. C.E., was 

 elected a Fellow of this Society. 



A paper was read : — " On the Geology of some points on the West 

 Coast of Africa, and of the Banks of the river Niger." By W. Stan- 

 ger, M.D.,F.G.S. 



1. Sierra Leone. — The predominant rock is a highly ferruginous 



