The Devonian Systc;n in Canada. — Wliitcaves. 215 
In the Christmas and New Year's week of 1897 and 1898. 
Mr. David White, of the United States geological survey, ex- 
amined the fossil plants from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 
in the Peter Redpath museum at Montreal, and in the museum 
of the geological survey at Ottawa. On the evidence of these 
plant remains Mr. White came to the following conclusions, 
which are summarized, by permission, from an unpublished 
report, in the form of a letter addressed to Dr. H. M. Ami, and 
dated January 12, 1898. (i). That the plant-bearing portion 
of the Horton series of Nova Scotia, as shown by Sir William 
Dawson in 1873, is nearly contemporaneous with the Pocono 
formation of the eastern United States, which has long been 
assigned to a basal position in the Carboniferous system. (2). 
That the Riversdale series of Nova Scotia (which Sir William 
Dawson referred to the Millstone grit) is of Carboniferous age 
and assuredly newer than the Horton series. (3). That tlic 
plant-bearing beds near St. John, New Brunswick, are not 
Middle Devonian, as had previously been supposed, but Car- 
boniferous, and that they are the exact equivalents of the 
Riversdale series of Nova Scotia. 
Early in January last, collections of fossil plants from the 
Horton and Riversdale series and Harrington river rocks, at 
several localities in Nova Scotia, were sent to Mr. R. Kidston, 
of Stirling, Scotland, an experienced palaeobotanist, for ex- 
amination and study. In a manuscript report upon these col- 
lections, addressed to the director of the Canadian survey, and 
received May 8, 1899, Mr. Kidston comes to almost exactly 
the same conclusions as those previously arrived at by Mr. 
White, and on perfectly independent grounds. In this report 
Mr. Kidston expresses the following opinions, i. Of the Hor- 
ton series he says : "These rocks appear to be undoubtedly 
Lower Carboniferous." "There is no evidence at all to sup- 
port the opinion that they are of Devonian age." "All the 
evidence derived from a study of their fossils, points very 
strongly against this view." 2. Of the Riversdale series he 
says : "The two divisions of this series, the Riversdale Station 
and Harrington river rocks, may be treated together, as thev 
contain the same fossils and are evidently of the same age." 
The whole of the fossil plants from the Riversdale series have 
a most pronounced Upper Carl)oniferous facies and markedlv 
