106 



THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



faces of rock. On the coast of the river St. Lawrence, at Cape 

 Rozier and its vicinity, the Lower Silurian rocks of the Quebec 

 group are well exposed, and are overlaid unconformably by the mas- 

 sive Upper Silurian limestones of Cape Gaspe, which rise into cliffs 

 six hundred feet in height, and can be seen filled with their char- 

 acteristic fossils on both sides of the cape. Resting upon these, and 

 dipping at high angles toward Gaspe Bay, are the Devonian sand- 

 stones, which are exposed in rugged cliffs slightly oblique to their 

 line of strike, along a coast-line of ten miles in length, to the head 

 of the bay. On the opposite side of the bay they reappear ; and, 

 thrown into slight undulations by three anticlinal curves, occupy 

 a line of coast fifteen miles in length. The perfect manner in which 

 the plant-bearing beds are exposed in these fine natural sections may 

 serve to account for the completeness with which the forms and 

 habits of growth of the more abundant species can be described. 



In the Bay des Chaleurs, similar rocks exist with some local 

 variations. In the vicinity of Campbellton are calcareous and mag- 

 nesian breccia or agglomerate, hard shales, conglomerates and sand- 

 stones of Lower Devonian age. The agglomerate and lower shales 

 contain abundant remains of fishes of the genera Cephalaspis, Coc- 

 costeus, Cte?iacanthus, and Homacanthus, and also fragments of 

 Pterygotus. The shales and sandstones abound in remains of Psilo- 

 phyton, with which are Nematophyton, Arthrostigma, and Lepto- 

 phleum of the same species found in the Lower Devonian of Gaspe 

 Bay. These beds near Campbellton dip to the northward, and the 

 Restigouche River here occupies a synclinal, for on the opposite side, 

 at Bordeaux Quarry, there are thick beds of grey sandstone dipping 

 to the southward, and containing large silicified trunks of Proto- 

 taxites, in addition to Psilopliyton. These beds are all undoubtedly 

 Lower Erian, but farther to the eastward, on the north side of the 

 river, there are newer and overlying strata. These are best seen at 

 Scaumenac Bay, opposite Dalhousie, between Cape Florissant and 

 Maguacha Point, where they consist of laminated and fine-grained 

 sandstone, with shales of grey colours, but holding some reddish beds 

 at top, and overlaid unconformably by a great thickness of Lower 

 Carboniferous red conglomerate and sandstone. In these beds nu- 

 merous fossil fishes have been found, among which Mr. Whiteaves 

 recognises species of Pterichthys, Glyptolepis, Cheirolepis, &c. With 

 these are found somewhat plentifully four species of fossil ferns, all 

 of Upper Erian types, of which one is peculiar to this locality ; but 

 the others are found in the Upper Erian of Perry, in Maine, or in 

 the Cat skill group of New York. 



