42 MATTHEW. 



having Protolenus, it was thought that the underlying series 

 was worthy of a distinctive name, and Etcheminian was chosen — 

 derived from a tribe of aborigenes which inhabited this country 

 before the advent of Europeans. 



In most countries the basement of the Palaeozoic sedi- 

 ments seems almost devoid of organic remains. It has been 

 thoroughly searched in Europe, but with very unsatisfactory re- 

 sults ; and there seemed little hope that America would yield 

 better returns. Nevertheless, the indications of a fauna obtained 

 in the maritime provinces of Canada seemed to hold out a hope, 

 that in some more favored region, these basement beds of the 

 Palaeozoic might yield remains in a better state of preservation. 



With this hope the author last summer made a visit to a part 

 of Newfoundland where Mr. J. P. Howley, the director of the 

 Geological Survey of that island, had reported a clear section of 

 sediments below the horizons of Paradoxides and Agraulos 

 strcnmis. Before describing the rocks of that district, however, 

 it may be well to speak more fully of the corresponding terrane 

 in New Brunswick, in which the relation of this series to the 

 Cambrian was first observed, and the break between the two 

 series of strata first demonstrated. 



2. The New Brunswick Sections. 



The accompanying general section will show the relations 

 which the Cambrian and Etcheminian terranes bear to each other 

 in the province of New Brunswick, and their attitude to the 

 underlying Prepalaeozoic Systems. The section, which cuts 

 through all these terranes, shows how insignificant in bulk the 

 whole Eopalasozoic is to the underlying Archaean masses. It 

 is perhaps owing to the thinness of the Eopalaeozoic rocks and 

 the firm platform of older sediments on which they rest, that 

 they have escaped severe metamorphism, and contain recogniz- 

 able fossils at the present day ; and yet withall there is a differ- 

 ence in the conditions of preservation of the organic remains of 

 the Cambrian and those of Etcheminian age, so that it is not 

 alone the greater recency of the former, which will account for 



