160 Canadian Record of Science. 



not to be wondered at that on studying the affinities and 

 relations of the fossil plants of Eiversdale, McKay's 

 Head, Harrington River, etc., of the Eiversdale formation, 

 Sir William Dawson placed them in the Millstone Grit 

 formation, so intimate were the relations of these to the 

 plants of the Coal Measures. The flora and fauna of 

 the Eiversdale formation must now be classed as Eo- 

 Carboniferous, as the roclcs in wliich they occur clearly 

 underlie the marine limestones of the Windsor formation. 

 These limestones have been carefully described and mapped 

 out by Mr. Hugh Fletcher in their association with the 

 gypsum beds of Nova Scotia. 



II. The MA.K.INE Sediments. — In the district of Nova 

 Scotia, under examination, besides the Eo-Carboniferous 

 formation of Union and Eiversdale, consisting of red 

 shales and sandstones and conglomerates, more or less 

 strongly cemented, overlying darker coloured gray and 

 black or greenish and rusty shales as defined by Mr. 

 H. Fletcher, constituting one of the cycles of sedimenta- 

 tion in the system, there occur the marine limestones 

 in an unconformable series. 



These marine limestones hold abundance of fossil 

 organic remains, e.g., on the East Branch of the East 

 Eiver of Pictou at Springville, at Brookfield, and at 

 Windsor, N.S., where the series is highly fossiliferous and 

 the forms are very well preserved. 



Hence the term " Windsor Series," employed by Sir 

 Wm. Dawson, which deserves to constitute a typical 

 formation or phase of this Carboniferous limestone under 

 the name Windsor formation. 



Just where to place the Windsor formation in the 

 column of Palaeozoic formations has not yet been definitely 

 ascertained. Whether it is to be classed as one of the 

 Eo-Carboniferol^s sediments or whether it constitutes a 

 factor or part of what may be termed according to Prof. 

 H. S. Williams's very appropriate classification — Meso- 



