1845.] 507 



origin to hopes, probably delusive, that valuable deposits of that 

 metal might be found in our newer coal formation. 



Beyond Fowey River, ten miles north-westward of Pictou, the 

 coast affords a good section, exposing reddish sandstones and shales, 

 containing some grey beds in their upper part, and including a 

 thin bed of dark grey limestone. Some of the red shales contain 

 leaves of ferns and fucoidal marks. The dip of these rocks is to the 

 ■S.S.E., at a very small angle : on approaching Cape John, how- 

 ever, the angle of inclination becomes greater, and grey beds again 

 become numerous, some of them being thick -bedded and coarse- 

 grained sandstones, and containing calamites and carbonized wood. 

 At the extremity of the Cape the strata becomes vertical, and here 

 (but below low-water mark) is a bed of white granular gypsum, 

 about three feet in thickness. The rocks in which this small bed 

 is situated, must belong to the newer coal formation, and probably 

 to its loAver pai'f ; and it is the only instance with which I am ac- 

 quainted, of the occurrence of gypsum in that part of the carboni- 

 ferous system. As it appears in none of the other sections which 

 I have examined, the range of this bed is probably small, and it is 

 too unimportant in thickness, to invalidate the claim of the older 

 carboniferous deposits to the title oi gypsiferous series. 



Coast Section of the Newer Co>vl Formation from Cape John, 

 8 miles to the Southward. 



2. Reddish sandstone and shale with grey beds and limestone, containing 

 ferns, SphenophyHum and Lycopodlum. 



1 . Grey and reddish sandstones and shales with conglomerate and gypsum. 

 Lignite and Calamites. 



» 



Beyond Cape John, a band of comparatively level country, 

 skirting the shores of the Gulph of St. Lawrence, and extending 

 as far as Wallace Harbour, is occupied by the newer coal formation, 

 which here contains a greater proportionate abundance of red 

 sandstones than near Pictou ; and instead of being bounded on the 

 inland side by carboniferous rocks, is met by, and seems to overlie 

 unconformably, a series of hard grits, slates, and limestones, with 

 scales of Holoptychius^ Encriiiites, and fragments of bivalve shells, 

 and which are probably of Kewer Silurian or Devonian age. The 

 last mentioned rocks, with various kinds of trap, form an elevated 

 ridge belonging to the Cobequid chain of hills. A copy of the 

 section exposed by the French river of Tatmagouche, which was 

 described in my paper of last winter, and well illustrates the struc- 

 ture of this region, is annexed. 



p p 3 



