230 Canadian Record of Science. 
On THE Eozoic AND PaLaozoic ROCKS OF THE 
ATLANTIC Coast OF CANADA IN COMPARISON 
WITH THOSE OF WESTERN HUROPE AND 
THE INTERIOR OF AMERICA.* 
By Sir J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.8. 
( Abstract.) 
The author referred to the fact that since 1845 he had 
contributed to the Proceedings of the Geological Society a 
number of papers on the geology of the eastern maritime 
provinces of Canada, and it seemed useful now to sum up 
the geology of the older formations, and make such correc- 
tions and comparisons as seemed warranted by the new 
facts obtained by himself and by other observers of whom 
mention is made in the paper. 
With reference to the Laurentian, he maintained its 
claim to be regarded as a regularly stratified system, proba- 
bly divisible into two or three series, and characterized in 
its middle or upper portion by the accumulation of organic 
limestone, carbonaceous beds, and iron ores on a vast scale. 
He also mentioned the almost universal prevalence in the 
northern hemisphere of the great plications of the crust 
which terminated this period, and which necessarily separ- 
ate it from all succeeding deposits. He next detailed its 
special development on the coast of the Atlantic, and the 
similarity of this with that found in Great Britain and else- 
where in the west of Europe. 
The Huronian he defined as a literal series of deposits 
skirting the shores of the old Laurentian uplifts, and refer- 
red to some rocks which may be regarded as more oceanic 
equivalents. Its characters in Newfoundland, Cape Breton, 
and New Brunswick were referred to, and compared with 
the Pebidian, &c., in England. The questions as to an 
Upper Member of the Huronian or an intermediate series, 
the Basal Cambrian of Matthew in New Brunswick, were 
discussed. 
* Proc. Geolog. Soc., London. 
