SOUTHERN NEW BRUNSWICK. 15 D 



nature of the country rendering their examination, except at distant 

 intervals, very difficult, and they may be therefore stated as resting 

 unconformably upon rocks presumably of Cambro-Silurian age, and 

 underlying the Lower Carboniferous sediments which surround the 

 central Carboniferous basin. 



VI. Lower Carboniferous. 



The general distribution of the Lower Carboniferous of Queens and General 

 Sunbury counties has been stated in the report of 1872-73. The forma- distriblltion - 

 tion, as seen in these counties, differs largely in the character of its 

 sediments from its recognised develojmient in the southern and eastern 

 areas, in the presence of large areas of trappean and other volcanic 

 rocks, soft felspathic ashes or claystone, as well as harder felspathic 

 beds. These are found not only along the southern border of the cen- 

 tral Carboniferous basin, but are seen obtruding through the grey sandy 

 beds around the head of Grand Lake, forming hills and ridges often of 

 considerable elevation, which furnish conspicuous landmarks in the 

 otherwise generally level surface. In the counties of Queens and Sun- 

 bury the rocks of this age form generally a margin of no great breadth 

 around the southern edge of the coal basin, but in Kings they spread 

 out and occupy the greater part of the valley of the Kennebecasis Bslv 

 and Eiver, having an exposed breadth in some places of twenty miles. 

 East of Penobsquis station, on the Intercolonial railway, they are 

 covered by the grey beds of the Millstone Grit, but to the westward 

 they extend beyond the St. John Eiver. The basin-shaped character 

 of this formation is well-marked ; the rocks lying unconformably upon 

 the pre-Cambrian, Cambrian and Devonian beds. Areas of less extent 

 exist among the pre-Cambrian hills of Kings and Albert, and in the 

 latter county they sweep around the eastern extremity of the pre- 

 Cambrian ridge at the Albert Mine, and thence extend down the valley 

 of Demoiselle Creek and westward along the shore to the mouth of 

 Point Wolf Eiver. Smaller patches are likewise found at the mouth of 

 Goose Creek and Martin's Head, in St. John county, and at the latter of 

 these places there is a deposit of fibrous gypsum of considerable extent. 

 In Charlotte county this formation is but sparingly developed. The 

 deposits of Lepreau and St. Andrews, with outliers about the shores of 

 Passamaquoddy Bay, are the principal. These are interesting as con- 

 taining in their lower portions fossils of Devonian type, while the 

 beds themselves are unconformably superimposed upon the true Devo- 

 nian, and otherwise possess the characters of the Lower Carboniferous 

 rocks, the several members of which, as developed in southern New 

 Brunswick, may be described in descending order as follows : 



