346 HONEYMAN ON NOVA SCOTIAN GEOLOGY. 



is quite possible that the new red sandstone is partly Permian as 

 well as Triassic. 



We have noAv a great stretch of cuttings, showing a series of 

 sections of sandstones, clays, grits and conglomerates. The last 

 form a very marked feature both in extent and coarseness. The 

 walls of conglomerate are high and threatening. They are close 

 upon the road, masses are easily detached, obstructing the Railway 

 Trains. The great characteristics of our carboniferous formation 

 are not apparent in these sections — coal, gypsum and limestone 

 are absent. The flora of the period are occasionally met with. 

 The coarse conglomerate extends a considerable distance beyond 

 the overhead bridge. This also is formed of shingle derived from 

 the pre-carboniferous rocks of the Cobequid Mountains accumulated 

 on the shores of the seas of the carboniferous period. 



The last exposure of the carboniferous formation occurs in the 

 opening of a brook tunnel. The rocks are soft black and grey 

 shales, with concretions. Rocks are now unexposed to a distance 

 of 700 feet, and then w^e have exposures of grey, metamorphic and 

 uncrystalline rocks to a width of 2150 feet. 



I believe this band to be of Middle Silurian age ; others may 

 regard it as Upper Silurian or Devonian. We have no direct 

 evidence to settle this question, it is only by analogy that any view 

 can be supported. General analogy is in favour of the probability 

 that the band is of Devonian age, as the rocks immediately underlie 

 the carboniferous. Special analogy for many years seemed to 

 favour this view. The reasoning was thus : — On the opposite side 

 of the Cobequid Mountains are strata which are regarded as the 

 anticlinal equivalents of the strata in question. At Earltown, in 

 the County of Pictou, these equivalents contain fossils corres- 

 ponding with those of the Typical series in Arisaig which were 

 considered to be Devonian by Palaeontologists. Before my exami- 

 nation cf the Londonderry Mines, part of the band of our section 

 in 1866 (^vide Transactions of the Institute 1866-7) our views 

 of the age of the Arisaig series of rocks had undergone a great 

 change. Distinguished Palaeontologists on either side of the Atlan- 

 tic had so coiTelated the fossils of the Arisais: series that the 



