GEOLOGICAL AREAS OF CANADA. 105 



western section, consist of sandstones, shales, and conglomerates, with 

 subordinate beds of limestone and gypsum, of Lower Carboniferous 

 ao-e. These occur as outlying portions of the great carboniferous 

 district of the east. The most important of these outliers, none of 

 which, however, contain any coal, occiTpies a comparatively Jarge area 

 on the Tobique River ; and a smaller one lies on the St. John, between 

 Fredericton and Woodstock. 



(ii.) The Southern Division. — This geological area, although form- 

 ing properly a portion of the Western Division described above 

 presents certain points of difference in the apparently more com^jlete 

 series of rock-formations contained within it, and in the still greater 

 signs of disturbance to which the older of these formations have been 

 subjected. It comprises the region lying immediately along the 

 north shore of the Bay of Fundy, and extends over the entire areas 

 of Charlotte and St. John Counties, over part of Queen's County, and 

 over lai-ge portions of the counties of King g,nd Albert. The rock- 

 formations recognized ^vithin its limits are as follows : 



First, a series of gneissoid strata, with succeeding dioritic and 

 chloritic slates, quartzites, ard related metamorphic beds, associated 

 very generally with high belts of granitic and syenitic rock, and for 

 the greater part, in a much disturbed condition. These crystalline 

 and semi-crystalline strata are Pre-Silurian formations, and are 

 regarded as of Laurentian and Huronian age; but the associated 

 granites and syenites are probably Devonian. Elevated areas of this 

 character occupy large portions of Charlotte and St. John Counties, and 

 others occur in Queen's, King's, and Albert County — as seen in the 

 Nerepis Hills, the Porcupiiae and Bald Mountain Ridges, the Quaco 

 Hills, and elsewhere. Many of these granites and syenites are por- 

 phyritic; and some of them, especially the red varieties, furnish 

 ornamental building-stones of much beauty. 



A second series, composed of dark slates associated with beds of 

 sandstone, forming a collection of strata known as the St. John's 

 Group or Formation. These strata overlie crystalline beds of the 

 supposed Huronian series ; and they contain examples of Paradoxides, 

 Conocephalites, and other trilobites of so-called " Primordial " type, 

 with brachiopods, &c., characteristic of the same geological horizon. 

 They are thus regarded as forming the extreme base of the Silurian 

 series — including under this term the Cambrian strata of many 

 geologists. As a rule, they are greatly folded and contorted, and 

 3 



