254 ON THE GEOLOGY OF ST. JOHN. 



of red slate resembling the finer beds of this group, rests against 

 a mass of altered rock which seems to be a continuation of the 

 Bloomsbury volcanic beds, at Taylor's Island, west of the harbour 

 of St. John. 



Associated Deposits. — These consist of sediments mostly 

 arenaceous, referable to the carboniferous and new red sandstone 

 formations. 



Lower carboniferous. — The upper part of the valley of the Ken- 

 nebeckasis river is filled wiih deposits of carboniferous age ; in the 

 lower part of the valley these rocks have been to a great extent 

 removed by denuding agencies, and only detached masses remain. 

 They seem divisible into two principal sections, viz. : 



A lower — consisting of coarse red conglomerates, red sand- 

 stones, and red shales. Fossils — Algae and stems of land 

 plants. 



An upper — comprising grey sandstones and grey and brown 

 shales. 



The lower beds were at first referred by Dr. Gesner to the new 

 red sandstone, but subsequently on account of their resemblance 

 to sandstones, gypsums, &c, of Minas Basin, to the lower carbo- 

 niferous formation. 



The discovery of certain plants in the shales of the upper divi- 

 sion at Norton station and Darling's Island in King's County, 

 enables me to confirm the latter view of their age. At the latter 

 place gray shales intercalated with grey sandstones hold the fol- 

 lowing species : 



Lepidodendron elegans, L. corrugatum, and a species resembling 

 L. Sternbergii, also abundance of spore-cases of Lepidodendra. 

 Cyclopteris Acadica, Daw. (or a species closely allied,) a carpo- 

 lite (?). 



The beds near Norton Station, which were cursorily examined 

 by Mr. C. R. Matthew last summer, are described as a thick undu- 

 lating series of grey and black shales and shaly sandstones. 

 Many of the layers are ripple marked and dotted with small bilo- 

 bate impressions, and contain small fragments of land plants. 

 Broken specimens of Lepidodendron corrugatum, Daw., and Le- 

 pidodendron elegans were obtained here. 



At Apohaqui, in beds belonging to the same series, a cordaite 

 (or stem of a large fern) was found in the beds of bituminous shale, 

 and seams of Albertite in sandstone were also observed. Further 



