GEOLOGICAL AREAS OF CANADA. 107 



southern portion of the district, which appears, moreover, to have 

 been largely denuded and otherwise affected by glacial agencies. 

 The more important of the recent formations are the peat bogs of 

 the Mispec Barrens and Musqiiash Bay, in St. John's County^ and 

 those of Mace's Bay and other localities in Charlotte County, fur- 

 ther west. 



(2.) The Eastern or Carboniferous District— This geological region 

 occupies the central and eastern portions of New Brunswick, forming 

 a large triangular area, the sides of which converge, respectively, from 

 . Mpisiguit Bay, on the Bay of Chaleurs, and Salisbury Cove, on Chi- 

 necto Bay, to a point in the vicinity of Oromoctoo Lake, near the 

 boundary-line of York and Charlotte Counties. It presents, as a 

 rule, a flat or gently undulating surface, drained principally by the 

 Miramichi and branches, in its more northern and central portions ; 

 and by the St. John, with the Nashwauk, Salmon, Washademoxe! 

 and other tributaries of the St. John, in the south. Its average' 

 height above the sea Is probably about 400 feet. Its strata consi^st 

 essentially of sandstones, calcareous and other conglomerates, and 

 argillaceous shales ; and they belong to the lower, middle, and upper 

 subdivisions of the Carboniferous series. Seams of coal are confined 

 entirely to the middle division— as elsewhere in the Carboniferous 

 formations of the Maritime Provinces— but those hitherto discovered 

 in New Brunswick are of comparatively slight thickness, the most 

 important seam scarcely exceeding a couple of feet, whilst the 

 greater number present a thickness of a few inches only. 



The Lower Carboniferous division is made up principally of sand- 

 stones, shales, and conglomerates, characterized by a very generally 

 prevailing red colour. Apart from outliers, it is confined, practically, 

 to the inner edge of the metamorphic area which borders the present 

 district on the east and south ; and its strata in many places are 

 folded among the metamorphic formations, and are also more or less 

 broken up by faults, or are otherwise disturbed, as below Long Island, 

 on the River St. John, and elsewhere. Coal, except in unimportant 

 traces, is apparently altogether absent. In some localities, however, 

 and notably in the Parish of Hillsborough, in Albert County, the' 

 remarkable bituminous substance known as " Albertite " occurs in 

 these Lower Carboniferous strata, in the form of undoubted veins. 

 This substance is a kind of solid, bitumen— black, brittle, and highly 

 lustrous. At the Hillsborough mines, it traverses— and for the greater 



