Geology in New Brunswick. 95 



sequence was that given in our first accounts of the region. 

 Owing however to the successive study of adjoining dis- 

 tricts and the often very different relations exhibited at 

 these several points (members which were apparently con- 

 formable at one point ceasing to be so at another, while 

 portions largely developed at some points failed to appear 

 altogether at others), different views have at various times 

 been held as to where the lines of separation between suc- 

 cessive formations were to be drawn. Thus, while the base 

 of the Primordial was at first believed to be marked by 

 certain white sandstones or quartzites, while the underlying- 

 purple sandstones and conglomerates were thought to be 

 more intimately connected with the Huronian, reason was 

 afterwards found for regarding the real base of the Prim- 

 ordial as being beneath these coarser beds ; thus accounting 

 for the apparently contradictory statements, first, that no 

 sandstones or even grits were contained in this formation, 

 and later, that it included at its base heavy conglomerates 

 filled with the debris of the underlying Huronian. As these 

 conglomerates are at some points wholly wanting, the dif- 

 ferent views expressed above become readily intelligible. 

 So again, while at St. John there is an apparent conformity 

 and great similarity among all the rocks, notwithstanding 

 that they are now known to contain in different parts fossils 

 of widely different ages, a few miles away from the city 

 that conformity fails altogether, and hence so long as the 

 conditions of the formations at that city alone were known, 

 the views of their relations might well be different from 

 what later and more extended observations showed to be 

 the more correct ones. 



The conformity or unconformity of the Primordial to the 

 Huronian (Coldbrook group) dwelt upon at length by the 

 authors of the "Azoic System" will be apparent or not 

 just according to what we regard as being Primordial. If 

 the conglomerates and associated beds beneath the fossil- 

 bearing strata be regarded as Huronian, the two series, so 

 far at least as these beds are concerned, will be conform- 

 able ; if included with the Primordial (as later investigations 

 fully prove to be the case), then the want of conformity of 



