488 PEOCEEDIKGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 5, 



Near the upper part of the section, where the plants become more 

 rare, and the rocks are more abiindantlj tinged with the red per- 

 oxide of iron, the beds are plentifully and often very grotesquely 

 marked with ripple-furrows, shrinkage-cracks, and current-Hnes. 

 In one or two beds there are surfaces covered with rounded projec- 

 tions resembling casts of rain-marks ; and in proof that this is their 

 true character, the surface being irregular, we have not only the 

 rain-marks themselves, but the little rills formed by the gathering- 

 drops as they rolled along in this, one of the most ancient showers 

 of which we have as yet any geological record. 



The general character of the conditions indicated by the Devonian 

 rocks and flora of Gaspe does not differ materially from that of the 

 Carboniferous period, though the vegetation would appear to have 

 been poorer in species and more exclusively Lycopodiaceous ; in 

 which respects it more nearly resembles that of the Lower than of 

 the Middle or Upper Coal-measures. The general history is that of 

 a sea-bottom elevated or filled up in such a manner as to afford sandy 

 or muddy flats, on portions of which plants grew, and on other por- 

 tions vegetable fragments were drifted, or bare surfaces were exposed 

 to the alternate influences of aqueous deposition and aerial desicca- 

 tion, — ^these various conditions being more or less prevalent through- 

 out a long period, during which the area may have been gradually 

 sinking, to be again disturbed and elevated at the commencement of 

 the Carboniferous period. 



In explanation of the siliceous and plant-bearing character of 

 the Gaspe beds, as compared with their more calcareous and marine 

 character in some other parts of America, I may point to their vici- 

 nity to the old Laurentian land on the north side of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, and to the possible existence of a nearer belt of Lower 

 Silurian land, indicated by the unconformability, in this part of 

 Canada, of the Lower and Upper Silurian rocks. 



In the collection of Sir W. E. Logan there are some vegetable 

 remains from the limestones of Cape Gaspe and its vicinity, which 

 perhaps indicate a still older terrestrial flora than that above de- 

 scribed. They afford, I think, evidence of the existence of at least 

 one species of Psilophyton and one of Noeggerathia or Poacites ; but 

 whether identical or not with those above described, I cannot deter- 

 mine from the specimens. The beds in which they occur certainly 

 underhe the Gaspe sandstones, and are probably Upper Silurian. 



2. On some Points in Chemical Geology. By T. Sterey Hunt, Esq., 

 of the Geological Commission of Canada. 



[Communicated by Prof. A. C. Eamsay, F.E.S., F.G-.S.] 



§ I. In a paper read before the American Association at Montreal 

 in August 1857, as also in some previous communications to the 

 Koyal Society, and in the ' Keport of the Geological Survey of 



