16 JOURNAL AND PROCKKDIXGS 



ered with glossy enamel. They are represented at the present day 

 b}^ sturgeon. They are found very abundantl}^ in old red sand- 

 stone. Some fishes of the time were large, said to be i8 to 20 feet 

 long. Some found their waj' to sea like our salmon. They were, 

 however, mostly inhabitants of lakes and rivers. In marine fauna 

 graptolites disappear. Trilobites also diminish and finally die out 

 in next or carboniferous period. Where found in Canada — Devonian 

 rocks found in interior continental plain bordering on the Silurian 

 west of Hudson Bay and extending from the mouth of the Mac- 

 kenzie River to Manitoba. In Cordilleran region also, near Banff 

 Springs Hotel at Banff. Tiie most important product of American 

 Devonian rocks is petroleum. It is stored by nature in what are 

 called the " oil sands " — beds of porous sandstone. The oil is sup- 

 posed to be produced by decomposition or slow distillation of or- 

 ganic matter. 



The carboniferous period is named from coal measures. Its 

 rocks sometimes reach a thickness of 20,000 feet — in Joggins sec- 

 tion, Nova Scotia, 14,000 feet — and chronicle a remarkable series of 

 geological changes. Its rocks include limestone, made of corals, 

 crinoids, brachipods, etc., which swarmed in the clearer parts of 

 the sea. Sandstones are often found full of coaly streaks and re- 

 mains of terrestrial plants — shales and seams of coal varying from 

 an inch to several feet or yards in thickness, and generally resting 

 on beds of fire-clay. This suggests successive subsidence and ele- 

 vation of those regions. The limestone attains a thickness of sev- 

 eral thousand feet, with hardly any mixture of sediment. The 

 formation of coral limestone speaks of long periods of subsidence. 

 Coal beds also show the same. Coal is composed of mineralized 

 vegetation. Each layer of coal is the remains of a forest. In Nova 

 Scotia there have been traced 76 of these, 15 of which contain good 

 coal beds. What is the solution of the problem ? The flora of this 

 period are still ferns, lycopods, etc., growing to great heights, per- 

 haps 50 feet. The fauna of the period is but scantily preserved. 

 Specimens of air-breathing animals, such as scorpions, tree insects, 

 and amphibians are found. The scorpions closely resemble living 

 ones, and possess stings. The carboniferous forests must have 



