EARLY DEVONIC HISTORY OF NEW YORK AND EASTERN NORTH AMERICA lOI 



these straits in northern Newfoundland, all lying essentially flat or in very 

 gentle slopes. The essential differences in attitude between these strata 

 and those of Gaspe have been effectively brought out in the description 

 given by Logan, Bell, Murray and other Canadian geologists. The straits 

 of Belle Isle thus appear to be only a waterway located by a probable fault 

 line and in no way comparable to the lower St Lawrence valley. It is 

 evident that these shattered remnants of continuous Siluric strata do not 

 constitute a " parma " but their strike still shows a parallelism to that of 

 the Gaspe folds. It is to be noted that the Archean shield, now broken 

 into, had an evident former continuation well south into Newfoundland. 

 We conceive that its margin, extending south over the present Gulf of 

 St Lawrence and into Newfoundland, was invaded by relatively shallow 

 waters depositing the calcareous Siluric beds beyond the active line of 

 plication and these beds may, therefore, stand in the same tectonic relation 

 to the Gaspe folds as the paleozoics of central and western New York to 

 the Appalachian geosycline at the east. We have stated above that the 

 Appalachian system of plication ends at this eastern end with the Forillon 

 peninsula and its buried remains reaching . seaward to the submerged 

 "American .bank." Here at the north the plication ceased, though 

 Devonic beds of the age of the Gaspe sandstones are known to lie over 

 the flat Silurians of northern Newfoundland. 



The termination or breaking down of these folds, whether due to 

 abutting abruptly against the Archean old land or to an earlier syntaxis or 

 "Schaarung" in the folds of the Archean itself is sufficiently indicated by 

 the very presence of the Gulf of St Lawrence, which is the opened and 

 invaded basin of the ancient Devono-Carbonic gulf whose deposits now 

 line its eastern and western shores. The horizontal position of these 

 deposits lying above the folds indicates how free of disturbance this basin 

 for most of its extent has remained since the opening of Carbonic time. 

 The Gulf of St Lawrence thus seems to represent the ancient cincture and 

 attendant breaking down of the margin of the old land at an angle of syn- 

 taxis, and the accessory phenomena of eruption and effusion are present 



