50 MATTHEW. 



(which in all probability was a disturbance and uplifting of the 

 earth's crust) may have operated in a milder way in the earlier 

 Etcheminian time, and have produced the limestone beds in 

 Newfoundland, and the flags and conglomerates which in New 

 Brunswick form the middle part of the terrane. In this view • 

 the limestone beds would mark a shoaling and clearing of the 

 sea water in this district of eastern Newfoundland while the 

 pure shale beds, and especially those having layers beset with 

 calcareous nodules, would mark the deeper water. We suppose 

 (though their structure has not been investigated) that these 

 nodules may be due to some sedentary protozoan or to accumu- 

 lations of errant protozoans, on account of their peculiar growth 

 and structure, which will be described in a future article. 



The limestone beds of the Cambrian, as we have said, are due 

 to different conditions of accumulation from those of the Etche- 

 minian. That they are littoral is seen from the abundance of 

 coarse material which they contain, as well as to the lumps and 

 grains of phosphate of lime, and the nodules of hematite with 

 which they abound. At Smith Sound, in the lowest conglom- 

 erate bed, the former mineral is common ; while in the next, 

 hematite is so plentiful as to form a thin bed of iron ore ; a 

 limestone conglomerate occurs in the Paradoxides zone on this 

 sound in which the upper boulders are peppered over with parti- 

 cles of phosphate of lime, as we now often see rocks on the sea- 

 shore coated with barnacles ; this indicates clear water and quiet 

 conditions after the boulders were deposited. These little, round 

 grains of phosphate may have been the moulds of minute 

 organisms which have fallen to the bottom of the sea and 

 lodged upon the stones accumulated there. 



In conclusion it may be said that we have in the Eopal^eozoic 

 basins of Smith Sound two separate terranes : the Etchcniuiiaji 

 of which the summit and base are not visible, and which con- 

 tains true limestones, and the Cmnbrian, of which the limestone 

 beds are fragmental, and which has a definite base as shown by 

 the fauna, the structure and the lithological characters. 



The Sections at Maimers Brook. — While waiting in St. 

 Johns, Newfoundland, for a train to go northward to Smith's 



