196 Ccoiadicm Hecord of Snence. 



Carboniferous views of the subject, and since the publication of this 

 " Address " the views of Mr, A. Smith Woodward and of Dr. Henry 

 Woodward and Prof. T. Rupert Jones have been received, and further 

 corroborate tlie views held by Dr. White and Mr. Kidston. The Mispec 

 and Lancaster formations of New Brunswick hold the same taxonomic 

 relation to the other palteozoic sediments of the geological column in 

 New Brunswick that the Union and lliversdale formations do in Nova 

 Scotia. The flora and fauna of both are practically identical — the 

 ferns, worms and insects, etc., of the former are found in the latter, and 

 must be referred to one and the same horizon. From this it would 

 appear that much of what has been called Devonian in New Brunswick 

 will have to go up into the Carboniferous system and certain measures 

 in Nova Scotia placed in tlie Millstone Grit formation, viz , the " Mill- 

 stone Grit of Riversdale, etc.," will have to go down from the Middle 

 or Meso-Carboniferons to tlie Early or Eo-Carboniferous. It will thus 

 bring the palaeozoic sediments of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia 

 which belong to the same Eo-Carboniferous period in the same position 

 in the geological column of rock-formations — a place which both from 

 -stratigraphical as well as from palseontological evidence they hold. 

 There is no divergence of opinion between the stratigraphical geologists 

 and the palaeontologists as to the position of " rocks of Union and 

 "Riversdale " in the sequence of geological formations. The only point 

 <it issue is where to draw the dividing line between the Carboniferous 

 and the Devonian. Mr. Fletcher, in his Nova Scotia work, draws the 

 line at the base of the limestone or marine series. I would draw the 

 line below the Union and Riversdale formations on the ground that 

 the entire character of the abundant fauna and flora these formations 

 contain, viz., erect trees, ferns, calamites, lycopodiaceous plants, 

 ostracoda, insects, worms, Crustacea in great variety, lamelli branchiata, 

 reptilian remains, etc., etc., have a true Carboniferous fades, and 

 can only be classed as Carboniferous in order to be placed in what is 

 recognized the world over as a portion of that system which is marked 

 by coal and coaly strata deposited in shall'ow water, lagoons and 

 estuaries in which many of tlie land plants and animals as well as 

 jnany of the aquatic plants and animals of that period lie buried or on 

 which tlie latter have left their footprints. The high-class flora and 

 abundant fauna of air-breathers of the St. John plant-bearing-beds 

 •( = Lancaster formation) are in my estimation Carboniferous rather 

 than Devonian as to their affinities when compared with the types 

 already recorded from European as well as American equivalents. 



One of the characteristic features of the rocks of the Mispec and 

 Lancaster formations of New Brunswick is that of metamorphism, and 

 this feature it is which gives rise to a suggestion of apparent antiquity. 



This factor is evidently a relative one as well as one of local signifi- 

 ■cance, and cannot enter into this argument except with the greatest 

 caution. 



