1845.] 593 



This limestone is succeeded in ascending ordei' by a series of 

 shales and sandstones all highly carboniferous. The sandstone on 

 the north side of Gaspe Basin is calcareous, and contains, accord- 

 ing to Mr. De Verneuil, Orthis, Le'ptcena ( Chonetes) sarcinulata, 

 approaching to the Eifel species ; Terebratula, a large variety, and 

 two other smaller species ; and Chonetes ojffinis ( C. pajnlionacea 

 of the coal measures), described by Phillips as a Spirifer (S.papi- 

 lionacea). 



The shales and sandstones are much disturbed, but nevertheless 

 preserve a general dip to the southward. Proceeding in that 

 direction across Mai Bay, we find a variegated reddish, yellowish, 

 and white crystalline limestone, with concentric concretions, and 

 without organic remains, supporting conglomerate and red sand- 

 stones ; the latter forming the summit of Perce Mountain, 1300 

 feet above the sea. The general dip is here also to the southward, 

 or S.W. Organic remains are reported to have been found in the 

 adjacent Perce rock, but I have not seen them. 



Bonaventure Island is of conglomerate nearly horizontal. As 

 we proceed up the Bay of Chaleur we may notice the red sand- 

 stone forming cliffs in nearly horizontal strata in the bays, 

 whilst the points are in general formed of harder rocks. These 

 are sometimes trap-rocks ; at others, hard conglomerate, whose 

 nodules seem glazed, as if they had been dipped in the sili- 

 ceous and calcareous fluid, which in cooling had formed the 

 cementing agent in the formation of the rock. I also noticed 

 reddish and greyish limestone abounding with the stems of Encri^ 

 nites ; but other fossils appeared very rare ; and I only found a 

 Terebratula allied to T.ferita. These limestones occur princi- 

 pally at Port Daniel, and, together with the associated conglo- 

 merates and sandstones, are very much disturbed ; but the red sand- 

 stone is less so than the rest, and is doubtless the uppermost of the 

 series. We have now arrived near the southern extremity of the 

 district of Gaspe, and I have communicated all the scanty inform- 

 ation as yet possessed respecting this interesting part of the coun- 

 try, where the rocks that intervene between the Silurian strata and 

 the coal may perhaps be best studied. The limestone of Cape 

 Gaspe has hitherto been considered analogous to the mountain 

 limestone ; but the fossils of the calcareous sandstone of Gaspe 

 Basin which I have enumerated, and which Mr. Lyell, I believe, 

 considers Devonian, will render it necessary to reconsider this sub- 

 ject. The highly carboniferous sandstones and shales that suc- 

 ceed to the southward, the occurrence of petroleum springs, and of 

 an impure coal in small quantities near Perce and at Port Daniel, 

 assist us in referring the rocks of this part of the country to the 

 carboniferous period, thus indicating our approach to the coal 

 measures of New Brunswick, on the opposite side of the bay where 

 coal fossils are found. 



