The Geological Age of PEI^"CE Edward Island. — By 

 Laweexce W. Watsox, M. A., Charlottetown, P. E. I. 



Read 8th April, 1912. 



The exact position of Prince Edward Island in geological 

 time has long been a matter of uncertainty. That it was 

 limited in one direction by the Upper Carboniferous and in 

 the other bv the Trias, was recognized bv all the Canadian 

 geologists who have examined the rocks of the island, notably 

 Gesner, Sir William Dawson, Dr. Ells of the Geological Survey 

 of Canada, and the native naturalist, Francis Bain; but the 

 general similarity of the rocky constituents, the eonformability 

 of the strata and the scarcity of fossils rendered the recognition 

 of possible plurality of formations difficult, if at all possible. 



The lowest beds, with outcrop on St. Peter's and Governor's 

 Islands in Hillsborough Bay, and on the still more easterly 

 extension of the same anticline at Gallows or Gallas Point, \Tere 

 early recognized as similar in character and geological horizon 

 with the Upper Carboniferous beds of the northern coast of 

 Xova Scotia, and of parts of Xew Brunswick opposite to Prince 

 Edward Island. 



Along the western shore of Prince Edward Island, from 

 Cape Wolfe to Xail Pond, the lowest strata disclose rocks of an 

 almost equally ancient origin as those of the Hillsborough Bay 

 anticline above mentioned. 



In some places on the mainland, as about Cape Tormentine, 

 these lowest beds of dark red or brown sandstones with con- 

 glomerates and grey streaks (indicating the elimination of 

 colouring matter by vegetable organisms), with plant fossils 

 characteristic of- the Upper Carboniferous formation, pass, with- 

 out stratigraphical demarcation into the red sandstones, impure 

 limestones, and shales which form the bulk of the rocks of 

 Prince Edward Island. 



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