1852.] DAWSON — NEW RED SANDSTONE OF NOVA SCOTIA. 399 



found no fossils in these shales ; but in their continuation eastward, 

 at Noel, they contain a Lepidodendron identical with one found in 

 the similar shales of Horton Bluff. The position, as well as the 

 mineral character of these shales, leaves no doubt that they belong 

 to that remarkable band of pseudo-coal-measures found in the lowest 

 part of the Lower Carboniferous series at Horton, Windsor, Rawdon, 

 Five Mile River, Antigonish, Strait of Canseau, &c., and described 

 in papers formerly read before this Society *. Succeeding these black 

 shales, in ascending order, the Lower Carboniferous rocks are seen 

 in the above section, fig. 1. These beds probably underlie the 

 gypsum and limestone which would recur on the north side of the 

 anticlinal formed by the black shales if the section extended suffi- 

 ciently far. Before reaching the extremity of the point on the east 

 side of the river, however, the edges of the beds sink to the level of 

 the sea, and the lower members of the New Red are unconformably 

 superimposed upon them. It is a somewhat instructive fact that 

 the beds of the underlying series are at this place both redder and 

 softer than the overlying New Red Sandstone. 



Fig. 2 shows the appearance of the section on the west side of the 

 mouth of the river, as viewed from a distance. 



Fig. 2. — Section on the West side of the Mouth of Petite River. 



a. New Red Sandstone. b. Carboniferous strata. 



At Salter's Head, near the mouth of the Shubenacadie, the sea- 

 cUff shows a considerable thickness of the New Red, which is there a 

 soft bright red sandstone, some of the beds containing calcareous 

 sandy concretions, which cause them to weather with singularly un- 

 even surfaces. In these respects they perfectly resemble the rocks 

 of the same formation seen between the Shubenacadie and Truro. 

 The New Red does not appear, in any part of this coast, to extend 

 more than between one and two miles from the shore, and in most 

 places its breadth is much more limited, being often only a ies^ hun- 

 dred feet. 



When in Hants County last summer, I revisited the great mass of 

 gypsum at Big Plaister Rock on the Shubenacadie, described by Sir 

 C. Lyell, in company with whom I visited it in 1842. Since that 

 time a large part of the mass has been removed by the quarrymen, 

 and the highest part of the rock, about 100 feet in height, seemed 

 tottering to its fall, the excavations of the quarry having completely 



* See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vi. p. 347 and note. 



2 D 2 



