BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 Vol. 2, pp. 529-540, PlS. 21,22. MAY 27, 1891 



CARBONIFEROUS FOSSILS FROM NEWFOUNDLAND. 



BY SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON, F. R. S., ETC. 



[Read before the Society December 31, 1890.) 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introductory Note 529 



New or remarkable Fossil Plants 530 



Gymnospermeas 530 



Lepidodendrea3 532 



Annotated List of well-known Plants 536 



Remarks on the Coal Formation of Newfoundland 538 



Introductory Note. 



The plants referred to in this paper are in part specimens submitted to me 

 some years ago by the late Alexander Murray, F. G. S., Director of the 

 Geological Survey of Newfoundland; in part specimens presented to me 

 some time subsequently by Mr. P. Paterson, of Quebec; but principally 

 fossils from recent collections by James P. Howley, F. G. S., now Di- 

 rector of the Newfoundland survey. They are mostly of familiar forms, 

 characteristic of the coal formation as it exists in Nova Scotia and Cape 

 Breton, and especially of the lower and middle portions of it. A few are 

 new, and some others raise interesting general questions. None of them 

 seem referable to the lower Carboniferous or Horton series or to the upper 

 Coal formation or Permo-Carboniferous. The strata in which they occur 

 are similar to those of the coal formation of Cape Breton, and according to 

 Mr. Howley contain several productive beds of coal. 



The Carboniferous of St. George's bay, in western Newfoundland, may- 

 be regarded as the northeastern outcrop of the beds which dip under the 

 waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in eastern and northern Cape Breton; 

 and it is likely that large areas of Coal Measures exist under the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence in the intervening space. As exhibited in St. George's bay, 

 the Carboniferous rocks include conglomerates, sandstones, green and red 

 shales, with bands of limestone and dolomite, and beds or masses of gypsum, 



LXXVin— Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 2, 1890. (529) 



