wALcoTT.l SUMMARY — APPALACHIAN PROVINCE. 309 



part of the Appalachian Province by fauna and physical character and 

 are considered as a connecting link between the two provinces. The 

 Labrador deposits are on the north shore of the Cambrian sea, but 

 those of the west shore of Newfoundland are, in physical character and 

 organic remains, the practical continuation of the sediments of the east- 

 ern side of the Appalachian Province. If this correlation be made, the 

 pre-Cambrian shore line is carried 400 miles farther to the northeast 

 and thence to the Straits of Belle Isle, giving a nearly direct line 

 of over 2,000 miles that may be included in the Appalachian Province 

 with its Canadian extension. Along such a great extent of coast line 

 oueexpects to find evidences of varying sedimentation, both in character 

 and amount; and an examination of the various geological sections of 

 'Newfoundland, the river St. Lawrence, Vermont, New York, and south 

 along the Appalachian range to Alabama, shows the most marked vari- 

 ation, both on the strike of the strata and in proceeding westward 

 from the ancient shore line. 



On the Labrador coast the rocks are sandstones followed by more or 

 less impure limestone. On the western shore of Newfoundland, over 

 1,000 feet of alternating limestones, shales, and quartzites rest conforma- 

 bly upon 600 feet or more of slates. For 375 miles along the south shore 

 of the St. Lawrence, from Cape Rosier of Gasp6 to the vicinity of Que- 

 bec, the strata referred to the Cambrian consist, according to Mr. James 

 Eichardson, of quartzite, with intercalated beds of conglomerate holding 

 limestone pebbles, the whole forming a series 600 feet in thickness. 

 This is superjacent to 700 feet of gray sandstone, also carrying con- 

 glomerate, while beneath this a limestone, with conglomerates and 

 bedded sandstones towards the lower portion of the section, extends 

 down some 700 feet more, giving over 2,000 feet as the entire thickness of 

 the section. Owing to the absence of paleontologic data there is some 

 uncertainty in referring all of this series to the Cambrian. In some of 

 the pebbles in the conglomerates of the upper portion a number of 

 species of the Olenellus fauna were found ; but no one of the three great 

 divisions of the Cambrian has been distinctly recognized. 



In the vicinity of Quebec the stratigraphic succession from below up- 

 ward consists of a succession of black, green, and gray shales, with hard 

 and heavy bands of green, sometimes yellowish white, quartzose sand- 

 stones. This is succeeded by greenish, grayish, and blackish, with 

 occasionally dark reddish or purplish tinted shales, with a band of hard 

 grayish sandstone. Above the latter bright red shales, with thin green- 

 ish or grayish bands, which in places are often calcareous, extend up 

 through red, greenish gray, and black shales withinterstratified masses, 

 often lenticular, of greenish and grayish Sillery sandstone. In the up- 

 per part of this last series Obolella pretiosa occurs. A thickness of 

 from 5,000 to 6,000 feet is estimated for the Cambrian series, beneath 

 the graptolitic shales of Point Levis. 



It will be noted of this section that the limestones of western New- 



