Prof. Milne and Alex. Murray — Rocks of Newfoundland. 261 
Devonian. — In the vicinity of Cape Rouge and Fox we find a 
series of plant-beariug sandstones, coarse conglomerates, and reddisk- 
green slates, amounting altogether in tkickness to about 3700 feet, 
which have provisionally been called Devonian, and are apparently 
tlie equivalents of the Gaspe sandstones. 
Carboniferous. — The Carboniferous is the newest rock formation 
of which Newfoundland yet boasts. It is displayed in two localities, 
in both of which it rests upon a Laurentian base. 1 One of these is 
in the central part of the island, in the vicinity of Deer Pond and 
Grand Pond, and the other is in the S.W. part of the island round 
St. George’s Bay. Its thickness is about 64:00 feet, and it resembles 
in every way the lower portion of the equivalent formation of Nova 
Scotia and Cape Breton. In going up any of the rivers which 
run at right angles to the general strike of the beds, they are seen to 
consist of red sandstones, shales, greyish limestones, gypsum, and 
conglomerate. The gypsum is preseuted at many points in masses 
like huge cliffs of chalk. At many points where its contact with 
the surrounding rocks is to be observed, it seems to occupv the 
position of an intrusive rock, 2 those with which it is in contact being 
contorted, broken, and turned up against its sides, as, for instance, at 
the mouth of Kippens Brook. The conglomerate contains frag- 
ments of rock and pebbles of magnetic iron derived from the 
Laurentian Series, and pieces of limestone containing fossils which 
are undoubtedly of Silurian age. Several seams of coal, one of 
which is 3ft. 6in. in thickness, have been met with, and many others 
in all probability remain to be discovered. 
In this series I did not observe anything which could be called an 
igneous rock, nor do I know that any have yet been observed. This 
fact would lead to the conclusion that it was previous to this time 
that Newfoundland sank into the tranquil state in which it now 
exists. 3 
Drift. — Above the Carboniferous we have no other formation but 
a covering of alluvium, which in many parts of the island, from 
the striated angular stones it contains, shows undoubted evidence of 
glacial action. In places this Drift contains Shells very similar to 
those which are still living in the surrounding sea. These, in con- 
junction with terraces, raised beaches, röche perche, etc., tend to show 
that Newfoundland was at no very remote period below the present 
level of the sea. The surface of the rocks on which the Drift rests 
is often roundly smoothed and striated, indicating what may have 
been glacial action. This so-called glacial action I am, however, 
inclined to think, from what I have seen in Newfoundland and 
Finland, is more likely to have been produced by Coast-ice acting in 
1 On the north side of St. George’s Bay it rests against Calciferous and Potsdam. 
2 I have tried to account for this phenomenon, which I have repeatedly observed, 
both in Canada and in Newfoundland, and a Suggestion is offered at pp. 18 and 19 of 
my Report for 1873. The strata of Carboniferous age on the north side of St. 
George’s Bay is almost perfectly flat. — A.M. 
3 Seither have I seen any intrusions of trap in any part of the distribution of the 
Carboniferous ; but the formation is very much disturbed and faulted, both on 
the south side of St. George’s Bay and in the Grand Pond region.— A.M. 
