392 



of importance to the palseobotanist originated from the 

 Fern Ledge section of Carleton, or from one of the numerous 

 beds a Httle further around the coast toward and just 

 beyond Duck Cove." 



"The Fern Ledges series consists of alternations of 

 sandstones and shales. In the compact, heavy grey 

 sandstones but few fossils, and those principally fragments 

 of woody stumps, are to be found. In the numerous beds 

 of fine grey or blackish shale, which is laminated and 



The "Fern Ledges," St. John, N.B. 



in many places, is considerably altered, a rich flora of 

 debris occurs. The more or less altered shale occurs in 

 beds ranging from a couple of inches to a couple of feet in 

 thickness." At Duck Cove, at the present time the best 

 collecting locality, the plant-containing bands are more 

 numerous than in the original section at the Fern Ledges 

 as reported by Hartt and Matthew. The beds dip at 

 an angle of about 30° to 50°. There are several minor 

 faults which tend to cause repetitions of the series but 

 even allowing for this there cannot be less than 20 bands 

 of plant-containing shales, of various thickness, most of 

 them containing a great variety of plants. 



Previous accounts seemed to indicate that the various 

 shale bands might represent zones in a geological sense. 

 This, however, does not appear to be the case though it is 

 not impossible that extensive and careful work over the 



