MeguDia Scries of A' ova Scotia. — Woodman. 3^ 
assumption that this marks a shoreward direction in part, and 
that a portion of the pre-ISleg-uma land mass lay to the south 
and west of the west end of the province. The size of the 
boulders in the Yarmouth conglomerate indicates a transpor- 
tation by no means long. The cross-bedding seen in tlie west, 
as far as it has any weight, points to the same direction of land, 
the south . On the other hand, the structure of the eastern part 
of the series is of such type as would readily have resulted 
from the folding of sediments marginal to a land mass to the 
noiih. 
There is no evidence as to the proximity of the old shore 
lines to any known points, if we except the large boulders in 
the Yarmouth conglomerate ; and when it can be i^roved con- 
clusively whether or not these are basal, they mav be of great- 
er service. 
Pre-Mcgiinia land: composition. — As to the character of 
the material forming tliis land mass, two indefinite lines of ev- 
idence are available. The first is the chemical character of 
the sediments. This is moderately acid to intermediate, de- 
pending upon the situation. The silica of the quartzvtes is in 
part oflfset by less acid minerals such as chlorite. A large 
number of rocks could have furnished detritus of such nature . 
The second class of evidence is the mechanical nature of 
the strata. The pebbles at ]\lt. Uniacke and Waverley. if 
there be any, are slate. Bailey's reference at Pubnico is quart- 
zyte. and my own confirms it for the general region. The peb- 
bles near Lockport, mentioned by Bailey as "quartz," may be 
quartzyte ; and those at Port la Tour are quartzyte. What 
the "gray vesicular rock" is, is not known. Thus the only au- 
thentic evidence as to kinds of pebbles points to quartzyte as 
at least a prominent ingredient of the old land, but it cannot 
have been the only one. Aside from tlie inherent improbability 
of one kind furnishing so many cubic miles of detritus, quartz- 
yte, however impure, would hardly account for the several 
thousand feet of argillaceous material in the slates of both 
formations. In the lower this is intimately mingled with the 
sand, the two in niany places alternating several times in a foot 
of thickness ; and evidently they came down in the water ap- 
proximately together . 
