220 The Physical History of the Trias 



XXI. On the Physical History of the Triassic Formation in 

 New Jersey and the Connecticut Valley. 



By Israel C. Russell. 



Bead May 27th, 1878. 



Beds of stratified rock, which have very generally been re- 

 ferred to the same age as the Triassic Formation of Europe, 

 occur in a number of detached areas along the Atlantic border 

 of our continent. 



The most northerly of these is found in the Prince Edward 

 Islands, which are formed almost entirely of soft red shales 

 and sandstones, very similar in appearance to the corresponding 

 rocks in New Jersey and the Connecticut Valley. The Trias- 

 sic sandstones of these islands have yielded the bones of 

 Bathygnathus iorealis, one of the few relics that have come 

 down to us of the abundant reptilian life of this period. 



The rocks of this formation are again exposed on each side 

 of the Bay of Fundy. In New Brunswick, the Triassic area 

 is of small extent, covering but a few square miles in the 

 neighborhood of Quaco Head, about thirty miles northeast of 

 St. John. These beds consist likewise of soft red shales and 

 sandstones, upon which rests a coarse conglomerate, — the whole 

 series dipping towards the northeast at an angle of about 

 thirty degrees. Beneath these rocks the unconformable lime- 

 stones and conglomerates- of the Carboniferous age are exposed. 



Along the eastern shore of the Bay of Fundy, the Triassic 

 beds are well shown for a distance of one hundred and twenty, 

 five miles, and exhibit the association of sedimentary and 

 igneous rocks, so frequent in this formation. The sedimentary 

 beds are chiefly shales and sandstones ; and the igneous rocks 

 some of the many forms of trap, although at times varying 

 greatly in structure and composition. 



These two divisions of the formation seem to be conformable 

 in dip, which, unlike that of the corresponding beds on the 

 opposite shore of the bay, is towards the northwest at an angle 

 of about sixteen degrees. The portions of this formation 



