470 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 27,
as merely a rude approximation to the truth ; and the colouring in
many places, more especially in the interior, remote from the coast-lines,
is little more than conjectural."
In various parts of 'Acadian Geology' reference is made to rocks which were thought by Dr. Dawson might be older than the Lower Silurian slates and quartzites (see particularly p. 620, 'Acadian Geology,' 2nd edit.). These will probably now be classed with the Huronian series ; and the massive porphyritic granitoid gneiss on which they rest, with the Laurentian.
Dr. Sterry Hunt visited Nova Scotia in November 1867, "for the purpose of making some observations on the gold-bearing rocks of that Province, with the view of comparing them with those of other parts of the Dominion, and also of obtaining such information as might be useful in the event of a geological survey of Nova Scotia itself."
Dr. Hunt's stay in the Province was limited to four weeks in the months of November and December ; and in the descriptions which he has given in his official Report to Sir W. E. Logan*, he quotes the following as the principal sources of information about the geology and mineralogy of Nova Scotia: — Dr. Dawson's 'Acadian Geology,' 1st edit. ; Mr. Poole's Report, 1862 ; Mr. J. Campbell's Reports, 1862 and 1863 ; Professor B. Silliman's Reports on Tangier, Waverley, and Montagu Goldfields, 1864. Dr. Hunt's opinion of the age of the gold-bearing rocks is expressed in the following paragraph : — " In the present state of our knowledge it appears probable that they may represent a part of the Lower Silurian Series, which, like the Upper Silurian and Devonian of this part of the continent, may be supposed to consist chiefly of non-calcareous sediments."
The Map (Pl. XXX. fig. 6) of part of New Brunswick between the Bay of Chaleurs and the State of Maine, " showing the disposition of the Gneissoid Series, part of which may be supposed to be of Laurentian age," is reduced from the original manuscript map which accompanied my Report on the explorations in 1865, and is described with some detail in pages 42-50 of the Report. The lines of section show where I crossed the gneiss belts; but, the intervening country being a rocky and wholly unexplored wilderness, the continuity of the bands is purely conjectural.
A copy of this Map was sent to Sir W. E. Logan, in 1865 ; and allusion is made, in the ' References to the Atlas of Maps and Sections of the Geological Survey of Canada,' to opinions expressed in my report that much of the granites of New Brunswick consist of altered sedimentary strata†.
- Page 7, Report of Dr. T. Sterry Hunt,F.R.S., on the Gold-region of Nova
Scotia.
† Much of what in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Maine is represented on the Map as intrusive rock (chiefly granitic), probably consists of palaeozoic strata altered in situ, as already suggested by Dawson and Hind. See the latter's ' Report on New Brunswick,' 1865, p. 50 ; ' Atlas of Maps and Sections, Geological Survey of Canada,' 1865.
