How important Discoveries are made. 263 



there is seemingly a want of money and means of transport, 

 both of which will, no doubt, in time be forthcoming. The 

 Devonian, or Old Red Sandstone, is very well developed, 

 and here, as in other lands, presents prominent topographical 

 positions, and confers a very remarkable facies upon the 

 scenery. However, the soils formed by its disintegration are 

 of themselves poor, but fortunately the drift deposits covering 

 them often make up for their unproductiveness. The granitic 

 rocks of the central portion of the province, and also the band 

 of slates flanking the latter, evidently belong to this series. 



Until 1868 these slates were considered by Dr. Dawson 

 and others to belong to the Lower Silurian rocks ; but the 

 discovery of fossils peculiarly Devonian on their flank, would 

 seem to make them of this age. 



An interesting example of how much science is now and 

 then indebted to outsiders in connection with some of its 

 important discoveries is shown in the case of my friend Mr. 

 Edward Jack, of whom reference has been previously made. 

 This gentleman, although engaged in the very arduous and 

 even adventurous occupation of a forest surveyor, has found 

 leisure and not scrupled to employ the same in enriching his 

 mind with whatever knowledge, in connection with literature 

 and science, was within his grasp, with the ulterior object of 

 applying the information practically during his avocations. In 

 this way it happened one day, when seated on the side of a 

 small brook in the centre of a wild forest tract, that he employed 

 a short respite in examining the shelves of slate rocks in the 

 vicinity, where he picked up several fossils which have been 

 the means of deciding the age of the. beds above mentioned. 

 These Old Red Sandstone slates cover an extent of country 

 in New Brunswick alone of little less than 170 miles in length, 

 and 20 in breadth, and, in the absence of any fossils, were 

 until then supposed (from their position and mineral consist- 

 ence) to be Silurian beds. 



