94 Canadian Record of Science. 



with in a way which, in justice to myself and my colleague, 

 Mr. Gr. F. Matthew, seems to call for some explanation. In 

 the review referred to, it is the avowed object of the author 

 or authors to show, by numerous citations, as well as by 

 tabular representation, that great diversity of opinion has 

 existed as to the age of the older rock-formations of this 

 Province, that these opinions have had no reliable basis of 

 observed facts, are a mass of confusion, and by consequence 

 worthless. 



To the first of the above statements I have no special 

 objection to offer, but desire to emphasize the fact that the 

 review in question embraces a period of over twenty years, 

 and the work of not less than five different observers, 

 engaged at different times and places, often independently, 

 and in a region of the most varied and complicated char- 

 acter. During that period changes of the greatest import- 

 ance have occurred alike in geological methods, in geologi- 

 cal nomenclature, and in general geological theories ; while, 

 as regards more particularly regions of metamorphic rocks, 

 these have everywhere been the subject of continued and 

 keen controversy. Such diversities of opinion and the dis- 

 cussions to which they give rise are inseparable, as I be- 

 lieve, from investigations of this kind, and not only have 

 occurred, but must occur in the study of all regions of dis- 

 turbed and highly altered rocks. The comparative review 

 of such studies over many different parts of the continent 

 (and, I might add, of Europe also,) shows that the investi- 

 gations in New Brunswick are in no way exceptional in 

 this particular. 



But I have now to add that the actual changes of opinion 

 complained of have really been much less than the citations 

 of Dr. Wadsworth and his colleague would seem to indicate. 

 Thus, since the time of the first determination of the real 

 age of the St. John City slates as Primordial, neither Mr. 

 Matthew nor myself have ever held or expressed any other 

 opinion than that the great bulk of gneissic, calcareous, 

 siliceous, and felsitic rocks which underlie them (and which 

 we compared with the generally accepted Laurentian and 

 Huronian systems) were pre-Silurian, and that their 



