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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 16, 



6. Additional Notes on the Red Sandstones q/* Nova Scotia. 

 By J. W. Dawson, Esq. 

 [Communicated by Sir C. Lyell, V.P.G.S.] 

 ' ' In a paper on the New Red Sandstone of 



Nova Scotia, read before the Society, June 

 ^ 1 84 7 *, in which I endeavoured to separate the 



^/> true New Red Sandstones skirting the Bay 



\ of Fundy from the red beds associated with 



the gypsiferous series and other members of 

 the Carboniferous system, — after having traced 

 'I these beds to the mouth of the Shubenacadie, 

 -J and again observed their continuation in Corn- 

 § wallis and Horton, west of the estuary of the 

 I '% Avon, — I remarked that, while the intervening 

 I o county of Hants is occupied chiefly by car- 

 •|.| boniferous deposits, there are on its north 

 S ° 23 shore patches of nearly horizontal sandstone 

 ||!i which might belong to the New Red. 

 -g^rM I had in the past summer an opportunity 



S 1 1 of examining these beds at Walton (Petite) 

 •« ^ ^ and other places, and was much gratified by 

 finding that the New Red might be traced, as 

 a narrow and occasionally interrupted band, 

 from the mouth of the Shubenacadie nearly 

 I to the mouth of the Avon ; thus connecting 



I as far as possible the distinct patches of New 



'W3 Red described in my former paper. At some 



8 points also I found very distinct coast-sec- 



1 tions, showing the unconformable superposi- 



I tion of the New Red on the Lower Carboni- 



% ferous beds. A good instance of this occurs 



I ^ at Petite River (see figs. 1 & 2). 

 rt % Near the mouth of the river the Lower Car- 



's -^ boniferous formation appears with the same 

 ^ I characters observed at Windsor and on the 

 I I . Shubenacadie. It includes a large bed of gyp- 

 ^ 2 1 sum, extensively quarried for exportation, and 

 tl 1 1 a bed of limestone with veins of oxide of man- 

 I "g-i) ganese, apparently the geological equivalent 

 1 J 8 of the Black Rock limestone on the Shubena- 

 tg § g cadie. In the neighbourhood of these beds 

 I ll the softer rocks have been denuded and do 

 ^ Z^ ^^^ appear. Still nearer the mouth of the 

 ^ «o river, however, there is a distinct section, 

 J^ -^J «^ showing black shales, with calcareous bands, 

 dipping at a high angle to the south, and un- 

 derlying the beds above-mentioned. In a 

 short space these beds become contorted, and 

 then dip steeply to the north, fig. \,f,f. I 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. 50. 



