Carboniferous System in Eastern Canada. 153 



Scotia. In the United States not less than seven Stand- 

 ard Sections have been described in various fields : — 

 Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri and other States. 

 These all have their peculiar characters and may be 

 described as local or provincial Standards or series. 



]^otwithstanding the fact that each particular basin of 

 Carboniferous rocks or sediments may have had its own 

 peculiar condition of sedimentation, which led to peculiar 

 local differences existing between the several basins, 

 there can be no doubt at all regarding the series belonging 

 to the Carboniferous system. The results obtained in 

 Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Eussia and 

 other countries in the Eastern Hemisphere constitute a 

 basis for the proper definition and classification of the 

 formations which may be described in Xova Scotia or 

 elsewhere as Carboniferous. 



Such a standard series as the consensus of opinion in the 

 world has established as marking the Carboniferous system 

 must be a term which includes within its extension the vari- 

 ous members of the different local series under examination. 



Unequal amounts and quality in sedimentation in differ- 

 ent districts led to interesting differences in the mode of 

 preservation and plentifulness or scarcity of palteontologi- 

 cal evidence which has led to a distinctive feature in the 

 study of the correlation of strata of ISTova Scotia. It has 

 been conceded that in the case of the Joggins section in 

 I^ova Scotia sedimentation was very rapid and the 14,000 

 feet of strata, there deposited, in a perfectly unbroken 

 succession, may have taken less time actually to be laid 

 down than a few hundred feet of shales and sandstones 

 belonging to the same system in another section. 



It follows from this that local series of Carboniferous 

 strata may be of very great thickness, others comparatively 

 thin. It is possible for the whole system of the Carboni- 

 ferous to be unusually extensive in its development in 

 a certain locality (as has certainly been the case in Nova 

 11 



