ON THE GEOLOGY OF ST. JOHN. 255 



up the valley are thick deposits of bituminous shale and limestone, 

 but their relation to the beds of Norton, &c, is not known. 



The resemblance of these shales and sandstones to those of 

 Horton Bluff and Gaspereaux river in Nova Scotia, is remarkable, 

 both as regards fossils, and the condition under which the strata 

 were deposited ; and there is every probability that they are of 

 cotemporaneous origin. 



The conglomerates of the lower division are unconformable to 

 the Portland series and St. John group, and have usually the fol- 

 lowing composition : 



Paste — dark red clay or sand derived from granite, rarely a 



grey calcareous mud. 

 Pebbles — imperfectly rounded fragments, one foot or less in 



diameter, of 

 1st Granite or syenite. 

 2nd Metaraorphic limestone. 

 3rd Mica slate. 

 4 th Soft brown sandstone. 



These rocks, except the last named, are derived from beds of 

 the Portland series. 



• The pebbles in those beds which recline on the flanks of the 

 bill's on the north side of Kennebeckasis Bay, are however mostly 

 from the traps, altered slates, &c., on which the conglomerates 

 there rest* 



In rear of the post-pliocene plateau at Red Head,' on the east 

 side of St. John harbour, is a small isolated deposit of conglome- 

 rate terminating in a cliff seventy feet high. It probably rests 

 on the tilted edges of the lower beds of the Mispeck group, and 

 is much less coherent than any of the Devonian conglomerates of 

 the vicinity. The layers incline to the northwest at an angle of 

 30°. The paste of the conglomerate is a dark brownish red sand- 

 stone, enclosing fragments of 1st granite, 2nd grey metamorphic 

 limestone, also pieces of trap, mica slate, and soft brown .sand- 

 stone. The deposit is therefore in every respect similar to the 

 conglomerates of the lower Kennebeckasis. 



Carboniferous. — There is a limited deposit of this age extending 

 along the coast from Emerson's Greek riear Black river to Quaco, 

 which is unconformable to the micaceous slates, &c, of Black 

 river, and which contains a flora more like the ordinary forms of 

 the coal measures, than is that of the Kennebeckasis beds. The 



