Megiiiiia Scries of Xoi-a Scotia. — Woodman. 
-D 
arg-illytes. Faribault ('99, p. 2) calls the Halifax rouf^hly 
two miles in thickness. 
The thickest sections of which I have direct estimate are 
(i) in Halifax county on the Caribou anticline, two miles west 
of Caribou settlement at the end of a dome of Goldenville 
rocks which projects through the Halifax, the latter appearing 
to be 4.600 feet thick; (2) in Guysborough county on the St. 
Mary's Bay syncline, a mile west of where West river crosses 
it, the formation measuring here approximately 4,800 feet ; 
and (3) Halifax peninsula. This last is the only instance, at 
least in the eastern part of the province, in which the Halifax 
attains a considerable breadth by repeated folds ; and here, 
unless unknown strike faults are present, the thickness is ap- 
proximately 11,600 feet. Strike faults are rare throughout 
the series, and the few known are extremely small and local. 
There is. moreover, no proof of such faults of any appreciable 
throw, in the many exposures in the city of Halifax. 
Conditions of (deposition. — The conditions of sedimentation 
in the Halifax were much more uniform than in the lower 
formation . The scarcity of quartzytes and the fineness and 
evenness of texture of the slates, indicate somewhat deeper 
water with little of the action which gave to the Goldenville 
its peculiar distribution of strata. The normal conditions of 
deposition prevailed. The deeper water signifies either a 
more distant land mass, or one worn much lower, so that not 
much material co-irser than mud reached the ofif-shore bottom. 
A few limestones are reported from various localities ; and es- 
pecially are thin layers found at the base of the formation. 
One. of a black color, outcrops on the east side of Halifax 
harbor. \Mierevei found, these indicate a nearly complete 
cessation of mechanical deposition. But usually the change 
from the lower to the higher group of rocks is marked by the 
light green, gray, and black banded slates. These apparently 
indicate a slightly dififerent source of material ; and their greater 
thickness in the west than in the east suggest one or more of 
three conditions : either a larger body of rock in the western 
part of the pre-Meguma land mass, from which this could 
come ; or a quicker subsidence in the east than in the west : or 
the presence of the pre-Meguma land nearer to the western 
seat of deposition. I know of no way to decide l:)etween tliese 
