GEOLOGICAL AREAS OF CANADA. 121 



ferns, and other plants belonging essentially to the Upper Division 

 of the Carboniferous series. 



These Carboniferous strata, however, are of little significance as 

 regards the geology of the Province generally. The main area of the 

 island, as stated above, is occupied by Triassic representatives. These 

 consist essentially, at the lower part of the series, of concretionary, 

 and more or less magnesian and sandy limestones, with beds of com- 

 paratively hard red sandstone and occasional conglomerates ; and, at 

 the upper part, of soft red sandstones and clayey marls. The red 

 sandstones form the characteristic strata of the island, but calcareous 

 conglomerates are seen in many of the coast sections on the western 

 shore. Some of the lower beds contain obscure plant-remains and 

 impressions ; and portions of the under jaw, with attached teeth, of a 

 Dinosaurian (?) reptile (the BathygnatMis horealis of Leidy) were dis- 

 covered many years ago in the red sandstone of ISTew London, on the 

 northern coast, a short distance east of Cape Tryon. On Hog Island, 

 a small islet lying off the western entrance of Richmond Bay, on this 

 coast, a dyke of dark grey trap or dolerite — the only example of an 

 eruptive rock known within the Province — runs for a short distance 

 along the shore. 



The only other rock formations occurring within the Province, 

 consist of Glacial and Post-Glacial deposits, and some modern accumu- 

 lations. Scattei'ed boulders and deposits of boulder-clay occur more 

 or less generally throughout the island, and are accompanied in places 

 by stratified sands and gravels containing occasional shells of Tdlina 

 Grcenlandica, so characteristic of Post-Glacial deposits in Quebec and 

 the New England States. The boulders of the south-eastei'n portion 

 of the island appear to have come chiefly from the syenitic and 

 crystalline ranges of ISTova Scotia, whilst those' of the noi'th shore 

 have followed the more usual law of distribution, and have come 

 apparently from northern sources, and piincipally from the gneissoid 

 rocks of Labrador and Newfoundland. 



The more recent formations of the Province comprise a series of 

 sandy dunes, or hills and ridges of blown sand, lying mostly along 

 the north-west coast ; various beds of peat, as those of Cascumpeque 

 Bay, Lennox Island, Squirrel Creek, &c. ; and accumulations of 

 "mussel mud." This latter deposit contains much organic matter, 

 with carbonate and a little phosphate of lime, and is largely used as 

 a mineral manure. It foi'ms beds of variable thickness, exceeding in 

 places ten or twelve feet, in many of the creeks and bays of the island, 

 4 



