394 NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



would seem, distinctly made out an underlying group of red sand- 

 stones and marine limestones, some of the latter beds having an 

 oolitic structure, and the former being associated with abundancej 

 of red marl. Mr. Lyell also states, as a second argument in favour 

 of his view of the age of the gypsiferous beds, that he found most of 

 the fossils of the limestones of Pictou to agree with shells and corals 

 obtained by him in the limestones near Windsor, and in those of the 

 Shubenacadie accompanying the principal masses of gypsum ; while 

 in these same limestones he found an intimate association between 

 strata containing carboniferous fossils, masses of gypsum, and coal 

 grits with Sigillaria and Lepidodendroii, but no seams of pure 

 coal. It appears also, in conclusion, that although overlying the 

 coal measures there is a formation of red sandstone, generally 

 without fossils, and often unconformable with the lower beds, 

 there are no great masses of gypsum or beds of marine limestone 

 associated with it, and nothing in fact that can identify these 

 with the gypsiferous beds already described. There seems, there- 

 fore, little doubt that Mr. Lyell's views, coinciding as they do with 

 those of Mr. Daw r son, Mr. Brown, Mr. Logan, and other careful 

 observers, are correct, and that the peculiar appearance and the 

 minerals characteristic of the newest palaeozoic or oldest secondary 

 groups in the old continents are in North America found in beds 

 of a much more ancient date, and correspond with the lowest 

 carboniferous slates of England and Europe, the beds of marine 

 limestone in America being the imperfect representations of our 

 carboniferous limestone. 



It is the middle of the three principal groups of carboniferous 

 rocks which in North America contains the productive coal 

 measures. Confining ourselves chiefly to their appearance in 

 Nova Scotia, we find them there developed to a vast extent, and 

 the whole series is admirably exhibited on the banks of the South 

 Joggins River, near Minudie, a locality otherwise remarkable in a 

 geological sense, on account of the presence of numerous fossil 

 trees embedded in an upright posture, and at several different 

 levels. Mr. Lyell's attention had been drawn to the circumstances 

 of these fossil trees by Dr. Gesner, and he was naturally desirous 

 of satisfying himself with regard to so very singular a phenomenon. 

 We extract portions of Mr. Lyell's account of his visit to Minudie 

 having reference to the subject of these fossil trees. 



From Minudie a range of perpendicular cliffs extends in a south-westerly 

 direction along the southern shore of what is called the Chignecto Channel. 

 The general dip of the bed is southerly, and the lowest strata near Minudie 

 consist of beds of red sandstone, with some limestone and gypsum. The sec- 

 tion is then obscure for about three miles, and then still further towards the 

 south there comes in a vast seriesof newer and conformable heds (the productive 

 coal measures), amongst which the upright trees occur ; the same series con- 

 tinues many miles further to the south. 



If we assign a thickness of four or five miles to this regular succession of 

 carboniferous strata which must have been originally quite horizontal, our 

 estimate will probably be rather under than over the mark. Where the section 

 in the cliff is first well exhibited, we find about 44 feet of blue grit affording an 



