CHAPTER XI. 



THE ACADIAN PROVINCE : THE CORRELATIONS AND CLASSIFI- 

 CATIONS OF THE UPPER PALEOZOIC FORMATIONS IN THE 

 ACADIAN PROVINCE. 



The name "Acadian province" is applied geologically to the territory 

 including the New England States, and the maritime provinces of 

 Canada, i. e., Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, and Prince 

 Edward Island. Although at certain periods of geological time this 

 region was little other than the northern extension of the great Appa- 

 lachian province, it may be considered as distinct during the Devonian 

 and Carboniferous ages. Its western limit may be arbitrarily fixed as 

 the Green Mountains and the elevated hills just east of the Hudson 

 Biver. The name is an adaptation of Sir William Dawson's term 

 "Acadia." 1 The rocks under consideration find their typical represen- 

 tation in the region described in the "Acadian Geology." 



The Carboniferous and Devonian systems are both represented in 

 this region by extensive deposits. The author had devoted much 

 time to a personal examination of the formations and had made a 

 special study of the plant remains. The second edition presents some 

 slight modification of the first in the classification. The classifica- 

 tion is an expression of the general features of the Upper Paleozoic for 

 this part of the continent at the tkne when it was written (1868). In 

 chapter x and the following chapters, beginning at page 128, the 

 classification and description of the Carboniferous system are given : 



a. Upper coal formation, 3,000 -\- feet. 

 6. Middle coal formation, 4,000 feet. 



c. Millstone grit series, 5,000 to 6,000 feet. 



d. Lower Carboniferous marine formation or Carboniferous limestone, variable in 



thickness, characterized by marine invertebrates (Productus cora, P. semireticu- 

 latus, etc., with associated beds of gypsum and marls, aud in some districts 

 entirely represented by conglomerates. 



e. Lower Coal Measures, holding some of the flora and fauna of the middle coal 



formation, but no productive coal beds; flora differing from that below in the 

 Devonian, upon which it lies unconformably. 



These last two divisions, u e" and "d," are considered as representing 

 the Lower Carboniferous or " Subcarboniferous " of the western geolo- 

 gists. 2 



1 Acadian geology : The geological structure, organic remains, and mineral resources of Nova Scotia, 

 New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, by John William Dawson, etc. 1st edition 1856, '2d 

 edition 1868. 



2 Page 131. 



226 



