
718 STRATIGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY. —[Boox VI. 
the others are some widely-diffused forms,—Calamites radiatus (transi- 
tionis), Palzopteris roemeriana, Sphenopteris Schimperi, Cardiopteris frondosa, — 
Lepidodendron veltheimianum, and three other species, Knorria imbricata, — 
and Cyclostigma kiltorkense.+ 
North America.—lIt is interesting to observe that in North 
America representatives occur of the two divergent Devonian and Old 
Red Sandstone types of Europe. The American Devonian facies has 
already been referred to. On the eastern side of the ancient Archean 
and Silurian ridge, which, stretching southwards from Canada, separated 
in early Paleozoic time the great interior basin from the Atlantic 
slopes, we find the Devonian rocks of New York, Pennsylvania, and the 
interior represented in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia by a totally 
different series of deposits. The contrast strikingly recalls that pre- 
sented by the Old Red Sandstone of the north of Scotland and the ~ 
Devonian rocks of North Germany. On the south side of the St. 
Lawrence the coast of Gaspé shows rocks of the Quebec group uncon- 
formably overlaid by grey limestones with green and red shales, attain- 
ing, according to Logan, a total thickness of about 2000 feet,” and in 
some bands replete with Upper Silurian fossils. They are conformably 
followed by a vast arenaceous series of deposits termed the Gaspé Sand- 
stones, to which the careful measurements of Logan and his colleagues 
of the Canadian Geological Survey assign a depth of 7036 feet. This 
formation consists of grey and drab-coloured sandstones, with occasional 
grey shales and bands of massive conglomerate. Similar rocks reappear 
along the southern coast of New Brunswick, where they attain a depth 
of 9500 feet, and again on the opposite side of the Bay of Fundy. The 
researches of Dr. J. W. Dawson, already referred to, have made known 
the remarkable flora of these rocks. Some of the same plants have been 
met with in the Devonian rocks to the west of the Archean ridge, so that 
there can be little doubt of the contemporaneity of the deposits on the 
two sides. Besides the abundant vegetation a few traces of the fauna of 
the period have been recovered from these Old Red Sandstones, Among 
them are the remains of several small crustaceans, including a minute, 
shrimp-like Hurypterus, and a more highly organized form named 
Amphipeltis, That the sea had at least occasional access to the inland 
basins into which the abundant terrestrial vegetation was washed is 
proved by the occurrence of marine organisms, such as a small annelid 
(Spirorbis) adhering to the leaves of the plants, and (in Gaspé and Nova 
Scotia) by the occasional appearance of brachiopods, especially Lingula, 
Spirifera, and Chonetes’ 
Section IV.—Carboniferous. 
§ 1. General Characters. 
This great system of rocks has received its name from the seams of 
coal which form one of its distinguishing characters in most parts 
of the world. Both in Europe and America it may be seen passing 
down conformably into the Devonian and Old Red Sandstone. So 
' Heer, Q. J. Geol. Soc. xxviii. 161, Dawson, Op. cit. xxix, 24. 
? Geology of Canada, p. 393. 
* Dawson's Acadian Geology, chaps. xxi. and xxii. 
