﻿254 Prof. Milne and Alex. Murray — Rocks of Newfoundland. 



semblance. It has been called by Mr. Murray the Intermediate 

 Series. These beds are in the main made up of dark-coloured 

 slates/ some of which are fine-grained and cherty, red and grey 

 conglomerates, and various sandstones. There are also some igneous 

 rocks like diorite, quartzite and jaspery bauds intercalated in the 

 series. 



Considering that there is good reason for believing that these 

 strata are of Huronian age, they are remarkable as containing 

 fossils.' The fossils are Aspidella terranovica, together with traces 

 of organisms like Arenicolites. 



At many points in this Huronian Series, which has a great 

 resemblance to the Grold-bearing Series of Nova Scotia, traces 

 of metallic ores have been found. Thus on Terra Nova Kiver 

 an opening has been made on a quartz lode containing copper 

 pyrites, coursing through a chloritic and calcareous rock. A more 

 successful undertaking is, however, to be seen at the La Manche 

 Mine.^ The ore worked is galena, which is associated with blende, 

 barytes, quartz, amethyst, and calcite, the latter forming the chief 

 portion of the gangue. One side of the lode is bounded by green- 

 stone, or moi'e truly an amygdaloidal melaphyre, in the ground mass 

 of which there is a large quantity of acicular needles of apatite. 

 On the opposite side of the lode we have the black slates of the 

 country, but so hardened that they have the appearance of a siliceous 

 rock. 



Frimordial Silurian.^ — Lying unconformably above the Huronian 

 rocks, and distinguished from them by their fossil contents, we have 

 a series of rocks identified by Mr. Murray as the Primordial Silurian, 



1 The tj'pe of the system in Newfoundland is in the peninsula of Avalon, where it 

 occupies an enormous area. There are, besides the clay-slates spoken of here, a great 

 mass of pale-green felsite slates, which weather of a dingy whitish colour, with occa- 

 sional alternating beds of red slate. I have remarked that, except as intersecting 

 veins, lime is very scarce throughout the series as seen in Avalon, and mica almost or 

 altogether absent. — A.M. 



2 'J'he Aspidella terranovica and Arenicolites are found in the clay-slates, which are 

 pretty high up in the series. They pass immediately below the sandstones and con- 

 glomerates of Signal Hill, which appear to be at the summit. — A.M. 



^ Beautiful hand specimens of various ores of copper have been produced from 

 many parts of the distribution, chiefly from quartz veins ; but the extent and quantity 

 of the ore, in no case I have ever known, seemed sufficient to warrant the reqliisite 

 outlay for opening up a mine. Lead occurs in many localities, usually in calcareous 

 veins. The occurrence so frequently of veins of calcite, in a non-calcareous rock, has 

 induced me to speculate on their derivation ; which I conceive possibly may have been 

 from infiltration into the fissures of the older rock, from the calcareous overlying 

 Primordial group, now denuded. 



■* I have a very good collection of these fossils from many parts of the island. The 

 formations are distributed in patches ; one of the best developments being in Concep- 

 tion Bay, where the relations to the Laurentian and Huronian are most distinctly 

 exhibited. There are also fine developments in Trinity Bay, in St. Mary's Bay, in 

 Placentia Bay, in Fortune Bay, and on the island of Miguelon, from all which places 

 I have made large collections of fossils. The series is recognized in Bonavista Bay, 

 but not so well developed as at the places named above, and I have not hitherto been 

 able to procure any organic remains from them. The base of the series is usually a 

 conglomerate, passing upwai'ds into a reddish sandstone, over which are a set of slates, 

 which are admirably adapted for roofing slates. Mr. Milne's description applies 

 especially to this latter locality. — A.M. 



