154 Canadian Record of Scienee. 



Scotia), whilst the sediments of tlie same age in Pennsyl- 

 vania are known to be much thinner. Evidence of rapid 

 sedimentation in Carboniferous times in Canada is clearly 

 seen in the Eo-Carboniferous of Colchester and Pictou 

 counties in ISTova Scotia as represented by ihe Union and 

 Ptiversdale formations there developed. Kipple-marked 

 surfaces and shallow water indications on all sides are 

 constantly recurring. Hundreds of feet of an unbroken 

 succession of strata, beautifully marked by ripples and 

 wind action, also by the footprints and trails of reptilian 

 and other animals, occur also in strata referred by Mr. 

 Fletcher to the same geological horizon as the rocks of the 

 Union and Eiversdale at Parrsboro, Five Islands, along 

 the Harrington River and elsewhere. This indicates very 

 rapid deposition or sedimentation along a fast sinking floor. 

 The main reason for introducing this argument is 

 to combat the view advanced in certain quarters that, by 

 placing the Union and Riversdale formations into the 

 Carboniferous system, we would make the latter an 

 unwieldy system and take away from the underlying 

 Devonian system, robbing it of a great portion of its sedi- 

 ments. It now behooves to state what are the successive 

 series of sediments wliich belong to the Carboniferous 

 system in Nova Scotia and what are the reasons for placing 

 them in that system. 



I. — The Eo-Carboxifekous. 



In this, the basal series of the Carboniferous system, I 

 would place the Union and Eiversdale series of sediments, 

 which are well and extensively developed in Pictou, 

 Colchester and Cumberland Counties at Union and 

 Eiversdale, along the Harrino'ton Eiver, Moose Eiver 

 (Cumberland County), Archibald Brook, Oliver's Mills, 

 McKay's (East Eiver, Pictou)and numerous other localities, 

 besides the Early Carboniferous plant and tish-bearing 

 beds of the " Horton Formation." 



