108 GEOLOGICAL AREAS OF CANADA. 



part at a high angle of dip — calcareo-bituminous shales containing 

 remains of fossil fishes (belonging to Palceoniscus, Holoptychius, and 

 other genera), with overlying grey and red conglomerates, intercalated 

 with beds of limestone and gypsum. At other localities, as at Mai-k- 

 hamville, in TJpham Parish, King's County, and near Shepody Moun- 

 tain in Albert County, the Lower Carboniferous strata contain 

 important deposits of pyrolusite or black manganese ore. Finally, 

 at Clarke's and McLeod's Mountains, north of Frederickton, and at 

 Bald Mountain, near Cranberry Lake, and some other spots, the strata 

 of this lower division are broken through by eruptive masses of trap- 

 pean or trachytic rock. 



The Middle Carboniferous strata consist essentially of sandstones, 

 sandy shales, and conglomerates, of a prevailing gray colour. The 

 series may be subdivided into two groups : a lower group, made up 

 of rocks of a more or less coarse texture, destitute of coal — the equiva- 

 lent of the millstone grit subdivision of Nova Scotia ; and a higher ' 

 oTOup of conglomerates and sandstones of finer texture, intercalated 

 with coal shales, layers or partings of clay, and thin seams of bitumi- 

 nous coal, representing the productive portion of the coal measures 

 proper. The strata of both groups occur, as a rule, in nearly hori- 

 zontal beds, or dip only at very moderate angles, rarely exceeding 

 four or five degrees. Most of the coal seams hitherto discovered are 

 under five or six inches in thickness, but one seam, known as the 

 " surface seam," averages eighteen or twenty inches, and, in places, 

 exceeds a couple of feet. It has been worked somewhat extensively 

 .as a source of local supply. These Middle Carboniferous beds appear 

 to extend over the entire portion of Eastern ISTew Brunswick, between 

 the Gulf on the east, and the border of Lower Carboniferous and Meta- 

 morphic rocks on the south and west ; but in some places the lower 

 rocks have been exposed, by denudation, over limited areas ; and at 

 ■other spots, the beds in question have been covered by red and pur- 

 plish shales, &c., of the Upper Carboniferous series. 



The strata of the Upper, like those of the Lower, Division, are 

 •essentially composed of shales, sandstones, &c., for the greater part 

 of a red or reddish purple colour, and destitute of coal. They overlie 

 the Middle Series conformably, and appear to be associated more or 

 less generally with the latter throughout the greater portion of the 

 "district. 



