46 MATTHEW. 



of the Cambrian, since Dictyoneina flabellifonne Eichw. was found 

 in some of the higher beds. Even the rocks on which the Etche- 

 minian rests, and which undoubtedly belong to an older system, 

 are so little disturbed that no difference of dip was observed in 

 passing to them from the Etcheminian. 



The small amount of disturbance which this basin has under- 

 gone is also shown by the absence of slaty cleavage, which so 

 often obscures, or even obliterates, the organisms of the older 

 Palaeozoic rocks. These conditions were almost as favorable 

 as those which exist in Sweden, for the study of the basement 

 sediments of the Palaeozoic. 



As the author has already remarked, the rocks in eastern 

 Canada, corresponding to these old Palaeozoic layers in New- 

 foundland, are distinguished from the true Cambrian by a slight 

 discordance of dip, and by evidence of erosion prior to the dep- 

 osition of the Cambrian, and similar conditions prevail in New- 

 foundland. The latter feature is well shown at Manuel's Brook, 

 where the Etcheminian is entirely eroded and the Cambrian 

 rests directly upon feldspathic gneisses, felsites and ash rocks of 

 the Intermediate or Huronian system. The relation of the Cam- 

 brian to the Huronian at this place has been shown by Mr. C. D. 

 Walcott. It corresponds to the conditions in the Kennebecasis 

 Valley in New Brunswick, where the basal beds of the Cam- 

 brain rest directly upon Laurentian rocks, without the interven- 

 tion of the Etcheminian. 



But at Smith Sound in Newfoundland a lower series of Palae- 

 ozoic rocks, i. e., the Etcheminian, separates the Cambrian from 

 the Huronian. Here as at Manuel's Brook a conglomerate lies 

 at the base of the Cambrian, the pebbles however, consist of 

 fragments of slate and small blocks of limestone, similar in ap- 

 pearance to a bed of this rock occurring in the Etcheminian 

 series a few hundred yards to the eastward. The conglomer- 

 ate also contains lumps and elongated pieces of phosphate of 

 lime intermingled with the limestone pebbles. The presence of 

 this mineral, according to the studies of J. G. Andersson and H. 

 Hedstrom in Sweden, show that beds in which it occurs were 

 deposited along a shore line, or at least not \'ery far from shore. 



