318 J. W. Dawson on the Flora of the Devonian Period, etc. 
solution of this question, and the evidence of mineral character 
is not to be relied on in the case of beds so remote from those 
ions in which the Devonian rocks of America have been 
most minutely studied. is Te 
In mineral character, Nos. 1 and 2 of the above sectional list 
might very well represent the Old Red Sandstone, or Catskill 
group, of the New York geologists. Nos. 8 and 4 might be re- 
garded as the analogues of the Chemung and Portage bbs es 
No. 5 would represent the Genesee Slate; No. 6 the remainder 
of the Hamilton group; No. 7 the Corniferous Limestone; and 
No. 8 might be regarded as a metamorphosed equivalent of the 
Oriskany and Schoharie Sandstones. The entire want of the 
rich marine fauna of these formations is, however, a serious 0b- 
jection to this parallelism, If, on the other hand, we employ as 
our scale of comparison the development of the Devonian sys 
tem in Gaspé, Nos. 1 and 2 will correspond very well witht 
upper member of the Gaspé series, and No. 8 with the rich 
plant-bearing beds of the middle of that series; but no mineral 
equivalent of the St. John shales and limestones occurs at Gaspé, 
unless we seek for it in the Upper Silurian. 
The rocks of the St. John group extend along the coast as far 
as the frontier of Maine, and there can scarcely be any doubt 
that the plant-bearing beds at Perry represent some portion 
the St. John series, most probably Nos. 2 and 3 of our sectional 
list. At Perry, the plant-beds rest on a trappean bed, which 
may be the equivalent of our No. 4, a member of the series 
much more constant in its occurrence than would be anticipated 
from its composition. According to Prof. Hitchcock, this last 
bed at Perry, rests unconformably on shales containing a Ling’ 
apparently not identical with that of St. John, and also_ other 
fossils of distinct Upper Silurian forms. The analogy of P erry; 
therefore, as well as of Gaspé, would point to an Upper Sil : St. 
age for the lower members of the St. John series, though at 
John they appear to be conformable with the overlying 0 it 
On the other hand, the unconformability at Perry ren ee a 
possible that the lower members of the St. John series a fee 
wanting there; and to assign a Silurian date to the lower re : 
at St. John would imply the entire absence of the od : 
+ in imme 
characteristic Lower Devonian marine fauna observ 
and in Nova Scotia, as well as in Maine, though no os ae 
diate connection with the Perry beds; while, if the whole be 8 
of St. John be Devonian, the absence of this fauna would 0? 
accounted for by the metamorphism of the lower beds. id 
___ In the present state of the evidence, it would be premature . 
decide this question, which may be settled either by the ¢ “ “a 
eovery of portions of the lower beds in a less altered state," 
by tracing the St. John series into connection with the sm" — 
