276 [Dec. 13, 



gonisli harbour, shows grey and brownish-red sandstones and 

 shales, buif-coloured sandstones, impure iron-stone, and coarse con- 

 cretionary limestone, these beds containing Calamites, coniferous 

 wood, and one or two small beds of coal. This part of the section 

 is, however, very imperfect, though, wherever the rocks can be 

 seen, there is a perfect conformity of dip. Their general aspect 

 and fossils correspond -with those of the middle part of the coal- 

 formation, and they occupy about six miles of the coast section. 



Eastward of the rocks last described, the section is better, and 

 shows a great thickness of brownish-red sandstones and shales, 

 with some grey beds, in which I could not find any fossils, except 

 some carbonised fragments of plants. These strata occupy about 

 three miles of the section, and are underlaid by reddish conglo- 

 merates, containing two beds of dark grey limestone, having an 

 aggregate thickness of about 80 feet. These limestones contain 

 numerous fossils, among which are Producfus Martini, Spirifer 

 glabra, and other shells, all common to these beds and the lime- 

 stones of the East River. These conglomerates and limestones 

 are succeeded by a few hundred feet of thinly stratified, reddish 

 and grey sandstones, with a few fragments of fossil plants in bad 

 preservation. Beneath these, red conglomerates again appear, 

 associated with amygdaloidal trap. The latter is of a grey colour 

 and earthy aspect, and has its cells filled with white carbonate of 

 lime. It constitutes two conformable beds, whose lower sides are 

 more compact than their upper. Their upper surfaces are also 

 partially broken up and intermixed with conglomerate. At this 

 point the carboniferous rocks are cut ofi" on the coast section ; 

 some hard brownish grits, however, seen in a neighbouring brook, 

 called M'Cara's brook, probably underlie the rocks last mentioned. 



The section between M'Cara's brook and Arisaig is occupied 

 by dark shales and thin layers of limestone, with a few beds of 

 reddish shale and conglomerate. These rocks dip S. "W., but 

 become much fractured as they approach Arisaig. They contain 

 numerous fossils, including species of the genera Tentaculites, 

 Graptolites, Trilobites, Orthoceratites, Modiola, Prodtichis and 

 Comdaria, and remains of Encrinites. Though mostly Silurian, 

 a few of these species appear to be the same with those of the slates 

 of the East River. Rocks having the appearance and fossils of 

 the latter are, however, found a short distance inland, to the 

 southward of the shales. 



There can be little doubt that, in the sandstones, limestones, 

 and conglomerates of this section, we have the representatives of 

 at least a part of the G-ypsiferous formation of the East River, 

 atid, resting conformably upon these, an equivalent of the coal- 

 measurcs. 



Arisaig. 



At Ai'isaig, 15 miles from Merigonish harbour, we enter on 

 the disturbed district, separating the coal-trough of Pictou from 

 that of Antigonish. From Arisaig to Malignant Cove, the shore 



