EARLY DEVOXIC HISTORY OF NEW YORK AXD EASTERN NORTH AMERICA 



79 



The dip of the Gaspe sandstones at Peninsula 



petroleum products of these rocks. In a great thickness of such uniform 



and homogeneous sedimentation the positive location of faultings and more 



particularly the degree of displacement 



can be ascertained only with difficulty. 



We can not arrive at any conclusion 



as to the possible contraction of the 



estimated thickness of the strata 



because of these presumptive faultings 



and I therefore give here the section 



as stated by Logan in 1863. 



Succeeding the calcareous rocks just 

 described, and resting upon them conformal)ly, 

 there occurs an important group of sandstones. 

 The contact of the two series, as already stated, is seen at Little Gaspe ; but between the 

 visible base of the sandstone group and the place of its greatest development, there are 

 two considerable undulations, and a probable dislocation of an uncertain amount. These 

 render it difficult as yet to unite the whole series, with a certainty that no strata are 

 repeated or left out. But though the section which shows the greatest unbroken series of 

 strata does not reach to the base, it is probably not far removed from it ; and it may 

 therefore, for the present, be assumed, probably without much inaccuracy, to represent 

 the whole group. In ascending order, the strata are as follows : 

 SHALES I Gray arenaceous and argillaceous shales, with beds of gray sand- 

 stone, varying in thickness from one to twenty feet, and one of them sev- 

 enty-five feet. A three-inch band of argillaceous iron ore occurs about 

 ^ssiL ^ one hundred feet from the top. Towards the bottom, the beds weather 

 of a rusty brown color, and contain abundance of plants. One of these, 

 in its arrangement on the surface of the beds, resembles F u c o i d e s 

 graph ica, but it may be the broken roots or stems of the other spe- 

 cies of plants, which have been recognized in this deposit ; surfaces thus 

 characterized were met with in more than one locality. Many of the 

 beds abound with the comminuted remains of carbonized plants, most 

 of which are too obscure to be determined. Among them, however, are 

 Prototaxites logani, Lepidodendron gaspianu m, P s i 1 o- 

 p h y t o n p r i n c e p s, P. r b u s t i u s, S e 1 a g i n i t e s f r m s u s 

 and Cordaites angustifolia; all described by Dr Dawson. 

 COAL Towards the lower part, there is a small seam of coal, with carbonaceous 



SKAM 



shale, measuring together about three inches; which appears to hold a 

 regular course, having a bed of clay beneath, marked by what seem to 

 be the roots of Psilophyton ; while the stems and leaflets of the plant 

 are met with in a thin seam of shale above the coal, and in the carbon- 

 aceous shale associated with it. On some of the leaflets, small shells of 

 the genus Spirorbis are met with. More than 130 feet above the coal 

 seam, there is a hard rough gray bed, looking like fire clay, with the 

 fibrous impressions of Psilophyton roots penetrating it at riglit angles. 

 Ripple mark occurs on some of the surfaces 



528 feet 



