408 
Bloomsbury group) the Lower Devonian. 
Matthew, in 1888, after stating that there 
-is one unconformity between the Perry 
sandstone and the Mispec beds and an- 
other between the Mispee beds and the 
Cordaite shales, thus redivides the Devonian 
rocks of St. John county, the unconformi- 
ties being marked by a dividing line. 
‘Perry Sandstones with Upper Devonian flora, ac- 
cording to Sir J. W. Dawson, but lithologically re- 
presenting the Lower Carboniferous sandstone. 
‘¢Mispec Conglomerate and slate. 
“¢Cordaite shales and flags, Middle Devonian flora. 
Insect remains (in oldest beds of the Cordaite shales). 
“Dadoxylon sandstone (with an older Devonian 
flora, G. F. M.). 
“Bloomsbury Conglomerate, etc.’’* 
On behalf of the Canadian Survey, in 
1870, Professor Bailey and Dr. Matthew 
traced beds corresponding to the plant- 
bearing beds near St. John as far to the 
westward as Lepreau Harbor, in Charlotte 
county, where many fossil plants like those 
at the Fern Ledges were collected. Ten 
years later the distribution of the Devonian 
rocks in the southern part of the province, 
as far as then known, was thus summarized 
by Messrs. Bailey, Matthew and Ells : 
“The areas of Devonian occurring in southern 
New Brunswick may be stated as follows : 
“J. A large basin, or double synclinal, east of St. 
John Harbor, occupying the valley of the Mispec, 
with a southern area extending northeasterly across 
the Black River, near the forks of the East Branch. 
‘2. Tsolated outcrops on Coal Creek and on Canaan 
River and North Fork, presumably of this age, but 
lacking evidence of fossils. 
‘¢3. Small areas about St. John and Carlton, with 
possibly Partridge Island. 
“4. A small area about the eastern extremity of 
Spruce Lake, on the St. Andrews Railroad. 
«5. A belt stretching west from Musquash Harbor 
to Lepreau Harbor, in which is contained the so-called 
anthracite mine of Belas Basin, with a smaller de- 
tached area along the shore from By Chance Harbor 
to Dipper Harbor. 
* Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Vol. 
VI., Sec. 4, p. 61. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Von. X. No. 247. 
‘6. A large area in the northern part of Charlotte 
county, embracing the former pale argillite series and 
extending into Queen’s county.’’* 
Prior to 1894 the Devonian age of these 
rocks had never been called in question. 
But, in a footnote to page 79 of Sir William 
Dawson’s ‘Synopsis of the Air-Breathing 
Animals of the Paleozoic Period in Canada 
up to 1894,’ published in the Transactions 
of the Royal Society of Canada for that 
year, Dr. Matthew says of the Little River 
group (which ineludes the plant-bearing 
beds near St. John) that he has ‘ re- 
cently found some reason to suspect 
that these beds are as old as Silurian.’’ 
And, as already stated in connection with 
this phase of the Devono-Carboniferous 
problem in Nova Scotia, both Mr. White 
and Mr. Kidston, on the evidence of their 
plant remains, have independently and 
quite recently expressed the opinion that 
the plant-bearing beds near St. John are 
the exact equivalents of the Riversdale 
series of the Nova Scotia Carboniferous. 
In northern New Brunswick an area of 
gray shale (with Psilophyton) and conglom- 
erates, which are regarded as of Devonian 
age, on the east side of the St. John River, 
near the mouth of the Beccaguimic, is indi- 
cated in a map accompanying Dr. Ells’ 
‘ Report on the Iron-ore Deposits of Carleton 
County,’ in the ‘ Report of Progress of the 
Geological Survey of Canada for 1874-75.’ 
Dr. Ells, also, in the ‘ Report of Progress’ of 
the same Survey for 1879-80, says that areas 
of Devonian rocks are ‘‘seen at intervals 
along the lower Restigouche River,’”’ and 
that they ‘‘form a synclinal basin extend- 
ing from near the town of Dalhousie west- 
ward to a point about two miles above 
Campbellton and terminating on the south 
side of the river at Old Mission Point.’’ 
This report is descriptive of explorations 
made in 1879, and in it the Devonian age of 
* Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress 
for 1878-79, p. 11 D. 
