228 THE DEVONIAN AND CARBONIFEROUS. [bull. 80. 



The correlations of the Carboniferous and Devonian deposits of this 

 Acadian province are based so greatly upon the evidence of plants 

 that I will not here attempt to discuss the merits of the arguments, as 

 the whole subject of the value of fossil plants as means of correlation 

 is being considered by an expert paleobotanist. There are sufficient 

 evidences of marine fossils to make clear that the base of the great 

 series of arenaceous deposits overlying the Silurian in the Northeast is 

 of Lower Devonian age and that the massive beds of limestone under- 

 lying the Coal Measures are Lower Carboniferous in age. The details 

 are chiefly matters of classification within the Acadian province, and 

 in any correlations that are made the fossil plant remains must be the 

 chief witnesses. 



As in the development of the geology of the Mississippi an province, 

 so in the development of that in the Acadian province, the coal beds 

 were the guides to the general correlation, and the details were elabo- 

 rated by degrees as the formations were studied. 



In the following pages I have arranged in chronologic order brief 

 abstracts of the results as they have been published, beginning with 

 the year 1843, the few papers bearing upon this particular province 

 prior to that date having been reviewed in the pages of the first chapter 

 of this essay. 1 



In the year 1843 there appeared in the Quarterly Journal of the 

 Geological Society, vol. 1, two articles on the geology of Nova Scotia 

 and neighborhood, the first by Richard Brown. 2 In this paper the 

 following formations were recognized: Coal Measures, Millstone grit, 

 Mountain limestone, and the "Gypseous series." The latter were 

 identified as occurring below the Carboniferous or Coal Measures. 

 The second article is by J. W. Dawson, 3 and it has maps and sections 

 and a description of the geological characters of the rocks. The Gyp- 

 seous formation is referred to the Lower Carboniferous. Above them 

 the author reported newer coal formations, and in the Ked sandstone 

 of Truro he reported another terrane, which was considered as "newer 

 than any part of the coal formation." 



In 1844 Lyell 4 in a short paper announced his opinion that these beds 

 belong to the Carboniferous system. 



In 1845 Dawson communicated a paper 5 to the Geological Society of 

 London regarding the geology of Nova Scotia. In this paper the Car- 

 boniferous and Devonian formations are defined. 



On East Eiver, Pictou, occurs a series of Carboniferous rocks having 



— — » 



1 In the preparation of these abstracts I have been assisted by Mr. V. F. Marsters, a graduate of 

 Acadia College and now instructor in geology at Cornell University, whose assistance is hereby 

 acknowledged. 



2 The Geology of Cape Breton, pp. 23-26 and 207-213, accompanied by a map. 



3 The Lower Carboniferous Rocks or Gypseous Formation of Nova Scotia, pp. 26-35. 



4 On the probable age and origin of a bed of plumbago and anthracite occurring in mica-schists 

 near Worcester, Massachusetts. Am. Jour. Sci., vol. 47, pp. 214, 215. 



8 On the newer coal formations of the eastern part of Nova Scotia. By Dr. J. W. Dawson. Quar. 

 Jour. Geol. Soc, vol. 1, pp. 322-330. 



