39 
Although the trend lines of the St. Lawrence Ordovician are in harmony 
with those of the later formations of Chaleur bay, the strata older than 
late Ordovician are far more deformed and altered than the latter. This 
greater deformation is older than that known as the Taconic disturbance 
of late Ordovician time. This older orogeny involved the Macquereau 
series and, possibly, also the Quebec series, but as to the last-named series 
it is not so certain as the Macquereau. 
The Devonian orogeny evidently folded the whole of the strata of 
the St. Lawrence and Acadian geosynclines, along with the New Brunswick 
axis, into a system of mountains, the Acadian ranges. Erosion of a very 
decided nature naturally went on during the rise of these mountains 
and apparently in the early Mississippian there was already present 
between Gaspe and New Brunswick a wide valley in which were laid down 
the Bonaventure intermontane conglomerates — flood-plain and bajada 1 
deposits of a semiarid climate. Then all of the area of the St. Lawrence 
geosyncline remained land until near the close of the Glacial period, when 
parts of the St. Lawrence and Acadian geosynclines were reoccupied by 
the sea — the present Chaleur bay, Northumberland strait, and bay of 
Fundy. 
Early in Mississippian time, when the Acadian mountains were still 
young, the somewhat thick, red, freshwater Bonaventure conglomerates 
and sandy shales were laid down in the Northwestern valleys of this 
system. 
Subsequent to Bonaventure time, Gaspe peninsula was not folded, 
though it may have undergone several epeirogenic movements, the most 
marked of which took place during Pennsylvanian and Triassic times. 
During this long interval of continuous land there was developed a well- 
matured river system, which late in Pleistocene time was more or less 
depressed by the load of the continental glaciers. On the melting away of 
this ice, much of the Maritime Provinces of eastern Canada was deeply 
flooded by the Atlantic ocean, and even though much of the area has since 
risen hundreds of feet, the land still remains deeply drowned throughout 
the area of the gulf of St. Lawrence. 
GEOLOGICAL SECTION IN DETAIL 
MACQUEREAU SERIES 
Along the entire north shore of Chaleur bay the only place where 
strata older than the higher Ordovician are known is on either side of the 
headland known as point Macquereau, east of Gascons. W. E. Logan 2 
was first to note these old strata in 1843, and studied them with some care. 
In the “Geology of Canada, 1863”, p. 272, Logan says, “These sandstones 
of cape Macquereau strongly resemble, in many parts, those of the Sillery 
series to which they are probably equivalent.” This conclusion was 
changed in 1883, by W. R. Ells,® who wrote of them as follows: 
1 Coalescing fans bordering mountain slopes. 
* Geol. Surv., Canada, Kept, of Prog. 1844. 
* Geol. Surv., Canada, Rept. of Prog. 1880-81-82, pt. D. 
