150 Ccmadian Record of Science. 



to discuss this latter question, but before very long, it is 

 hoped, it will form the subject of another paper. 



Where to draw the line between the Carboniferous and 

 Devonian systems in Eastern Canada is therefore the 

 question at issue. It is the purpose of the writer to enter 

 this field of enquiry without any leaning or bias to any 

 one view, but to take up the evidence as it appears to him 

 and as it was collected by him during the last four years in 

 the counties of Pictou, Colchester, Cumberland, An tigonish, 

 Hants and Kings in ISTova Scotia, referring to other 

 localities only as the occasion may require. 



Opinions varied and numerous have been given by 

 many writers. These were consulted merely with the 

 purpose of obtaining such notes of records of observations 

 as might help to throw light upon the problem. 



Sir William Dawson, Sir Charles Lyell, Abram Gesner, 

 Dr. Jackson, Prof. Alger, Prof. J.P. Lesley, MM.de Koninck 

 and de Verneuil, Hugh Fletcher, Esq., Dr. E. W. Ells, 

 Henry S. Poole, Esq., Eichard Brown, Esq., Prof. T, 

 Eupert Jones, E.E.S., Eev. T. Kirby, J. W. Salter, Esq., 

 Dr. Henry Woodward, Dr. G. F. Matthew, Prof. Bailey, 

 Mr. A. Smith Woodward, Mr. Eobert Kidston and Prof. 

 David White have all contributed to the literature of this 

 interesting controversy. 



I shall not attempt to review the difference of opinion 

 which may exist between what may be- termed the two 

 schools of geology in this matter — tlie Murchisonian — 

 whose characteristics of the Devonian age are based more 

 especially upon the life-zones or palasontological evidence 

 which the formations under discussion hold, or the 

 Sedgwickian, which paid more immediate attention to 

 the stratigraphical succession and defined the Devonian 

 on this basis without the use of fossils. 



From a considerable study of the origin or genesis 

 of the various geological formations in question, of the 

 cycles of constructive forms noticed in them, the periods 



