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Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., McGill College, Montreal. This formation was first distinguished as o separate member of tho Carboniferous system in Eastern Nova Scotia by the writer, in a paper published in tho first volume of the * Journal of the Geological Society,' in 1845 — and was defined to be an upper or overlying series superimposed on the productive Coal-measures, and distin- guished by the absence of thick coal-seams, by the prevalence of red and grey sandstones and red shales, and by a peculiar group of vegetable fossils. Subsequently, in my paper on the South Joggins* and in my 'Aca- dian Geology,' this formation was identified with the upper series of the Joggins section, Divisions 1 & 2 of Sir William Logan's sectional list, and with the Upper Barren Measures of the English Coal-fields and the third or upper zone of Geinitz in the Coal-formation of Saxony f. Still more recently, in a * Report on the Geology of Prince Edward Island,' 1871, I have referred to the upper part of the same forma- tion the lower series of sandstones in Prince-Edward Island, not previously separated from the overlying Trias t. In Prince-Edward Island, however, where the highest beds of this series occur, they become nearly horizontal, and are overlain appa- rently in a conformable manner by the Red Sandstones of the Trias, which differ very little from them in mineral character. It thus happens that, but for the occurrence of some of the characteristic Carboniferous plants in the Lower series and of a few equally cha- racteristic Triassic forms in the Upper, it would bo difiicult to affirm that we have to deal with two formations so different in age. In connexion with this, the entire absence of the Permian system, not only here but throughout Eastern America, raises the question which I have already suggested in ' Acadian Geology,' whether the conditions of the Upper Coal-formation may not have continued longer here than in Europe, so that rocks in the former region con- stituting an upward extension of the Carboniferous may synchronize with part at least of the Permian. On the one hand, there seems to be no stratigraphical break to separate these rocks from the Middle Coal-formation of Nova Scotia ; and their fosoils are in the main idei\tical. On the other hand, where the beds are so slightly inclined that the Trias seems conformable to the Carboniferous, no very marked break is to be expected ; and some of the fossils, as the conifers of the genus Walcliia, and Catamites gigas, have a decided Permian tendency. * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. t Acadian Geology, p. 149. :|; ' Eepoi-t on tlie OJeologieal Structure of Prince-Edward Island,' by J. W. Dawson, LL.D.&c, and 13. I. Harrington, B.A., Ph.D. 210 J. W. DAWSON ON THE UPPER COAL- FORMATION OF On the whole, in tho * Report ' above referred to, I declined to separate the red beds of the Lower Series in Prince Edward Island from tho Newer Coal-formation. Prof. Geinitz, however, in noticing my Report*, and also in a private letter, expresses tho opinion that the fossils have, as an assemblage, so much of a Permian (or Dyadic) aspect that they may fairly be referred to that formation, more particularly to its lower part, the Lower Rothlicgende. Attaching, aa every one must, great weight to the judgment of Prof. Geinitz on such a point, T have in recent visits to Nova Scotia reexamined tho more instructive sections of the Newer Coal-formation on the eastern coast of that province, with the view of ascertaining whether any stratigraphical or palaeontological line can be found to divide the Upper Coal-formation series of my former papers into two members or to separate it from the Middle Coal-formation. The results of this reexamination and their bearing on general geological questions I propose to state shortly as follows : — The Carboniferous district of Pictou county, extending for about 45 miles along the shores of Northumberland Strait, exposes in that distance in coast- and river-sections the whole thickness of the Carbo- niferous system, arranged in three synclinal forms (see Section, fig. 1). The first or eastern synclinal (No. 1 in the Section), extending from the older metamorphic rocks on the eastward and southward to a line running nearly east and west through the town of New Glasgow, consists entirely of the Lower Carboniferous, Millstone Grit, and Middle Coal-formation, and contains all the known workable Coal- measures of the county. Its northern boundary, the New-Glasgow anticlinal, brings up a bed not recognized in the other Nova-Scotia Coal-fields — the New-Glasgow Conglomerate, an immense mass, believed in some parts to be 1600 feet in thicknessf, and containing boulders 3 feet in diameter, with pebbles of all sizes, many of its largest stones being composed of the hard brown or purplish sand- stones of the Lower Carboniferous. Its stratigraphical position is that of the upper part of the Millstone Grit or lower part of the Middle Coal-formation ; and it is evidently an exceptional bed, re- presenting an immense bar or beach of gravel and stones stretching from the eastern end of the metamorphic chain of the Cobequid Mountains across the Pictou Coal-field, and protecting those deep swamps in which the Pictou main coal, 36 feet thick, and its black shale roof, more than 1000 feet thick, were deposited. The theory of this remarkable deposit, one of the most singular connected with any Coal-field, is fully discussed in the second edition of my * Aca- dian Geology.' I may merely remark that, facing as this bed does the open sea stretching to the northward in the Coal-formation period, it is not ur reasonable to suppose that it indicates the action of heavy ice grounding on the shores behind which grew the Sigil- ifam-forests of the Coal-swamps. The arrangement of the beds in * Neues Jahrbuch, 1872. t This is Sir W. Logan's estimate, and is warranted by the breadth which the bed occupies in the Section ; but there are indications that it thins rapidly toward the dip. K.VSTERN NOVA SCOTIA AND PRINCE-EDWARD ISLAND. 211 ►1. I t § tab Oo S o B » I- o 5 o 6 o p ^ £? e O CD Pi CD i w If M 5^ O •^ W W 212 /. W. DAWSON ON TUE UPPER COAL-FOHMAXION Of the late Mr. E. Hartley. ^ ^^- ^" ^^"«'^" ""^ The second or middle synclinal CNo 2 in fhn q„ r \ i. , The third synclinal (No 3 in the Sectien) extend, from Cnrribon 21/11™ ^!''■^•''^J■'°^«»'™'^ 'h'ough the CW »nd ,nost centinuom seetLsf ™d ftth? e In I *t* f'".''.'.'' 1. Seclioii oa lite East River of Pkloit. 1. On tho river-section, below New-Glasgow brid..o tlio eonrfn morate is succeeded in ascendin- order h? 7 „Zlf' "?"S'''- limestone 20 feet thick, associa^S wl"sl"sto' fand'X k'S nvor^^cuon, but on the flank of tho cong/eLrate cToT tw 2. Abovo this is a series of black shales and underclavs with grey sandstones and some reddish and nurole shale, 3?1,-^ of bituminous shale and coal. These bi*,o„t„i„i° " T"^' dode,uha, Entomostracans and flX-i^mlins retS""'/?.'" Th^SUsfoftt^'e^fraZT^rfcS "' "■" ""■'^'"■°^""^- 4. Above this is a second series of dark shales and under-clays, witVtt'^ilSieS-'oS^^^^^^^^ H-stone „,ay be compared' .hire Coal-rids in England^.^^e^ hSp cZ-fiS S.S'Kin.^""^''^"''- EAHTBRN NOVA SOOTIA AND PRINCE-KDWAKD ISLAND. 213 and bituminous shales associated with grey sand-stones and contain- ing fossils similar to those of the series below. It especially abounds in ftsh-acalcs and Oythere ; and several of the fishes are specifically identical with those of the upper part of the Middle Coal-measures as seen in the Bouthom trough, south of New Glasgow. These beds are about 200 feet thick. Mr. H. Poole has described them in the ' Canadian Naturalist' for August 1860. 5. The beds up to this point may be considered the equivalents of the Middle Coal-measures or of the upper part of them, and are now succeeded in ascending order by thick grey and reddish sand- stones and reddish and grey shales, including, however, thin coaly bed and underclays, and clays with nodular limestone. These may be regarded as belonging to the Upper Coal-formation ; and their aggre- gate thickness as far as Pictou Harbour may be 2000 feet. They contain Oatamites, trunks of Dadoxylon materiarium, Lepidodendron, Pecopteris arhoreseensf and Neuropteris. The dip of the Conglomerate is high ; and that this is not alto- gether due to false stratification is shown by the fact that to the eastward of New Glasgow the limestone and the Coal-measure beds rest on the Conglomerate at an angle of 45°; but this rapidly dimi- nishes to 20°, and in the greater part of the section it is only from 8° to 6°. The line of demarcation between the Middle and Upper Coal- formations is not marked here by any great physical break, but merely by the cessation of the characteristic beds of the Middle Coal-forma- tion and the change to sandstones associated with red shales. At first sight it might appear that as the beds north of the Con- glomerate dip uniformly to the north, and mostly at slight angles, and thdse south of its outcrop are much more disturbed, there might be evidence of unconformabiUty. This, however, is due to a line of fault extending along the outcrop of the Conglomerate, and to the greater relative disturbance of the beds of the southern synclinal. 2. Section west of Carribou Harbour. This Section exposes the south side of the third or northern syn- clinal, and may be supposed to begin not far above the base of the Upper Coal-formation. It extends in ascending order obliquely across the synclinal for about ten miles along a coast in which the beds are on the whole well exposed, with uniform dips of about N. 30° E. magnetic, or nearly true north, and at an angle of about 10° ; and no break or evidence of unconformability exists throughout the series, which amounts here in thickness to about 2500 feet. The lowest beds seen in this section at the mouth of Carribou River are red and grey shales, and grey, red, and brown sandstones, including a small bed of coal 5 inches thick, with /S^^waria-rootlets in the underclay; and at Carribou Island, nearly in the line of strike, there is a somewhat thicker bed of coal. The overlying series may be described as consisting of indefinite alternations of shales, mostly deep red, with sandstones, grey, red, and brown, the latter sometimes Q. J. G. S. No. 119. R 214 i. W. DAWSON ON XHK UPI'ER COAL-FORMATION OV coarse and pobbly, and occasionally in thick massive bods. Several of the beds of shale contain concretions of limestone, in one case forming a nearly continuous bed, and with no fossils except a few casts of a Cythere. In one of the lower beds of sandstone seen on Carribou River there are concretions of grey copper, and foscil trunks of trees penetrated by this mineral ; and some of the iossil trees found in the sandstones on the coast are partly mineralized with sulphate of baryta. The only material difference in mineral character is that red beds become more prevalent toward the upper part of the section, where the general character of the beds is precisely that of the supposed Upper Coal-formation rocks at Miminigash, Governor's Island, and OuUas Point in Prince-Edward Island, and on the coast of New Brunswick at Cape Jourimain*. The following statements, reduced from my sectional lists, will nerve to illustrate these points of mineral character. Ill the whole section the sandstones, including the argillaceous sandstones, are to the shales in the proportion of about two to one in vertical thickness, and the grey and buff sandstones are about equal to those which are brown and red, while the red and mottled shales greatly preponderate over those which are grey. In the lower half of the section, extending to the mouth of Toney Eiver,. the groj sandstone, red sandstone, and shales (mostly red) are in the proportions of 4|, 3, 6|. In the upper half of the section they are in the proportions of 4^, 5|, 3 ; so that red sandstones become decidedly more prevalent in the upper part, where there is also a greater proportion of coarse pebbly sandstones and of light-red shale with greenish stains. If we compare this with the upper part of the Joggins section as given in Sir William Logan's lists, we find a thickness of 2267 feet ; and if we regard the Ragged-Reef Sandstones as equivalent to the heavy sandstones at the base of the Pictou section, it is possible that the upper part of the latter is not represented at the Joggins. Taking the proportions of sandstones and shales at the latter place, we find them to be grey sandstone 12, red and brown sandstone 1, shale 10 ; so that here the proportions of sandstones to shales are not very dissimilar to those in the lower part of the Pictou series, but the grey sandstones are greatly more prevalent. Like those in the upper part at Pictou, some of the upper beds at the Joggins are coarse and pebbly, a character not observed, in either Coal-field, in the sandstones of the Middle Coal-formation. If, on the other hand, we turn to Prince-Edward Island, the geological relations, and especially the fact that the outcrops on Prince-Edward Island correspond with the extension of two of the New-Brunswick Carboniferous anticlinals, would lead us to believe that the upper Coal-formation beds seen at Gallas Point, and amounting to about 800 feet in vertical thickness, must belong to the upper part of the Pictou series, or may even reach some way above its summit. Accordingly we find the proportions of the * Beporl on Pvince-Eciward Island. f n » V KASTKRN NOVA SCOTIA AND PKINCE-KDWARD ISLAND. 215 i several rocks to be grey sandstone 2, red and brown sandstone 4 , shales 2, or a still greater proportion of red s.uidstoiie us compared with Pictou. All this accords with the idea of a gradual increase of red beds in approaching the summit of the formation, so that the upper Coal-formation passes in its upper part into beds having more the aspect of some parts of the Lower Dyos or Permian. No true dolomite is present in these beds ; but Dr. Harrington's analyses show that some of the thin beds of concretionary limestone are highly magnesian, and the sandstones contain concretions of sul- phate of copper, while the fossil trees which abound in them are often mineralized with sulphates of copper and iron, and sulphate of baryta. Fossils of the Upper Coal-formation. Fossils are by no means so abundant in the Upper as in the Middle Qoal-formation, and they are chiefly vegetable. One of the most characteristic plants is Bado.vylon materiarium, a species with simple medullary rays, drifted trunks of which abound in a calcified or silicified condition in the sandstones. The fine specimens or' the i^ternbergia pith of this species which I described in 1857* and 1871 1 arc from this formation. In the upper beds leafy branches of the genus Wa'cJiia are common fossils, probably be- longing to trees of the genus Dadoxyhn, the only pines which accom- pany them. Calamites are also abundant, especially C. JSuckovii and C. Crstii; and Calamoclendron approxtmattim is not uncommon, while Calamites ffigas occurs rarely in the upper part. Anmdaria sphenophylloides is a characteristic plant in the lower part, and Cor- da'ites simplex is very abundant in some beds. Lepidodendra are rare, and -represented principally by a species which is identical with, or very near to L. pictoense. Among ferns the most abundant species are Pecopteris arhorescens and a variety of Alethopteris nervosa. Stiymariai and Sigillarice are much less frequent even in the lower part than in the Middle Coal- formation, and have not yet been re- cognized in the upper part. The following tabular view may serve as a summary of the flora of the Upper Coal-formation as at present known. The first two columns represent the upper and lower parts of the Upper Coal- formation in Nova Scotia ; and the third column represents that of Prince-Edward Island. Of the species all but about ten, or more than three fourths, have been found in the Middle Coal-formation also. It will be observed that the number of species, which in all is much smaller than that in the Middle Coal-formation, becomes rapidly reduced in the upper part, and that there is a considerable similarity between the upper series in Nova Scotia and that in Prince-Edward Island. This is further noticeable in the great prevalence of specimens of Dadoxylon materiurium, Walchia, Cor- da'ites simplex, and Pecopteris arhorescens in this part of the forma- tion in both districts. * Proc. Amer. Association, 1857, Canad. Nat. vol, ii. t Report on Prince-Edward Island. b2 2iU J. W. DAW80N ON fUB UPPER COAL-FOBMATION OP ••^ Upper Coal-forination. tipocies. Nova Scotia. Prince- Edward iHland. Lower part. Upper part. 1. Dadoxylon materiariuin, Dawn 2. Walchia (AraucaritoB) gracilis, Daws T .( - ..-.^ rnhiifltji DtlWS ....... ,,,,., > « * He tt # # # * # # # 1 « * « * J. Rifvillnriii ni*i 1^.^1111.111 lifOHflil f\ SlficrninrifL ilpdirlnH lifOflOfl ••... ft Pfilniiiit'pn Hiir*knvii liroiintl 7. CiBtii, Brongn H rridin llrOUOfl 10. Calamodendroii approximatuin, Brongn. . 11. Annuiariiv Hphonopliylloidos, Zenker l»> lonfrit'olin lironan .. 13. Sphenopliylluni oniargiimtum, Brongn.,., lit Innfrirnliiini (rfihiifj 1ft nrti^rrti^livlln frOnT). 17 .__ ftmhriiifn fifSO 1R NAiirnntj>piH flpxuOBa Urondti 10 . rnrdatii Jlronuti ,. ofk Vii^tnpnnli villi, lirovftn 23 ftnfirustifolia?, ^row^W 24, Odontopteris Sclilotheimii, Brongn 2ii SnhfinmitfiriB Intior. Daws o« n-latji? Urofian .... ....... 97 AlnfVinnteris nervosa. Bronon 2ft Serlii Bronan ^'O - ii/*iitA lironon ... . ..x..i.i l\r\ 'PAPrtnfAriR arV*orftflf!flnft liTOTlQTt ^1 — . nhhrnvintn, l^TOVnti, fl9 — iinit.n. Brovcin. , Q'i . rirridn T)(HliS JM- oreonteroides. Bronan 35. Bucklandi?, Brongn., or FMasei- lionis, Lcsq Sfi T^piriApfin. n-fipnnprt.i. DaWS 'AR Popflai'tes RimDlex. Daws 89 Lenidodendron Dictoense, Daws 40 . iinrlulfttum Stemh . , .... 41 Tjfiniflonhlnios narvuB. /^flM/s 4.9 Lnnidonhvlluni. ^varioUi! BD.) 4n Pinmilaria .• •.. 44, Trigonocarpum Nceggerathii, Brongn. . . 45. sp 4fi T?,VinVif1nnnpnii9 insiffnia Daws 47 Anf.VinlitViRH snuamoBUB. Daws ■^ There is unfortunately no recognized Permian in Eastern America wyierewith to compare the fossils of the upper member of the Newer Coal-formation ; but inasmuch as the Coal-formation of Nova *^ EABTKKN MOVA bCOtU AND I'llINCK-KDWABD IHLAND. 217 •^ f Scotia 18, UH I huvo olsowhoro Hhown, more nearly allied in ita fossils to that of Europe than to that of the interior of North America ; and as the Permian flora consists to a greot extent uf survivors from the Cool-forniution, it will not be unfair to compare the above list with the species in Ocinitz's and Ooppert's Memoirs on the European Permian. The very abundant Dado.vi/lun materiarium is a tree of the same typo with several species found in the European Permian, as for instance D. aaxonkum, Reich., and D. Hchrollianum, Giipp. WaU chia is also regarded as characteristic of the European Dyas ; but as it is not imj)robablo that it represents merely leafy branches of Dadoxylon, it belongs to the Carboniferous as well. One of our species, however, is very near to W. pinlformia of the Dyas. Galamitea arenaceus, whether or not an internal axis of Equiaetites, is Dyadic in Europe ; and some of my specimens may well belong to C. hioderma of the European Permian. 0. yigas is a decidedly and peculiarly Permian species. C. Sucl'ovii and C. Cistn are Permian as well as Carboniferous in Europe, as is also Cnlamoden- dron appro.vimatum. Annularia longifolia is Permian as well as Carboniferous. Neuropteris rarinet'vis is peculiarly American and very widely distributed ; but it is questionable if some of its larger- leaved varieties are not identical with European forms known by other names. Neuropteris Jleamosa, N. cordata, and N. auriculata, as well as Pecopteris (Cyathettes) arborescens, P. oreopteroidea, and P. abhrevia^a are both Carboniferous and Permian ; and the species which I have compared doubtfully with P. BacMandi, and with P. Massilionia of Lesquereux, has strong points of afRnity with P. denaifoUus of Gdppert. Cordaitea aimpleoo is a peculiar American species, but nearly allied, according to Geinitz, to his C. lioesalerianus from the Lower Dyas. Finally Geinitz thinks the Trigonocarpum from Prince-Edward Island to be the same with his Bhabdocurpva dyadkua. We thus have an undoubted paloeontological rec^mblance between the upward extension of the Carboniferous in Nova Scotia and Prince-Edward Island and the Permian of Europe, though in the former regions no stratigraphical break enables us to establish on that ground any well-marked line of division. Taking into con- sideration the great thickness of the Carboniferous in Nova Si*.otia and the large development of this Upper Permo-Carboriiferous member, it would not be surprising that in this last we may have a chronological equivalent of part at least of the European Permian. We have no evidence as to age derivable from marine shells. The highest marine limestone known to me, a bed near Wallace Harbour, which I described many years ago in the Journal of this Society *, belongs to the base of the Newer Coal-formation, and contains Productua cora, P. aemireticulatua, and Avictdopecten aimplex, all characteristic Lower Carboniferoiis forms. In Prince-Edward Island the Upper Carboniferous and the Trias are appparently conformable, and may almost be said to pass into * ScD also 'Acadian Geology,' p. 214, 2nd edition. 218 J. W. DAWSON ON THE UPPEK COAL-FOBMATION OF » % euch other, though in Nova Scotia the Tria?. rests unconformably on the Carboniferous. T believe, however, that this apparent conformity in Prinoe-Edward Island, and the resemblance of the two serie" in mineral characters, arises from the almost horizontal position of the Carboniferous beds, and from the circumstance that the Trias has been in part formed from their waste. The Triassic fossils, though few, are of species quite distinct from those of the Carboniferous. Further details as to the relations of these formations in Prince-Edward Island will be found in my Report on that island. To sum up, it may be said that the beds which overlie the Coal- field of Pictou and extend into Prince-Edward Island, and which constitute the upper part of the Upper Coal- formation, have such strong points of resemblance to the lower part of the European- Permian, both in their mineral character and organic remains, that they may fairly bo named Permo-Carboniferous, a name already applied to certain marine limestones in the West, in which the Carboniferous graduates upward iito the Permian. They may also be held to some extent to bridge over the gap which in Eastern America separates the Carboniferous from the Trias. I may add that in Nova Scotia the Lower Carboniferous beds are usually more hardened and altered than those of the Middle Coal- formation, and the latter more than thote of the Tipper Coal-forma- tion. Moreover there are instances in Nova Scotia of local uncon- formability of the Lower Carboniferous beds ; and the New -Glasgow conglomerate affords evidence of extensive denudation of the Lower Carboniferous before the deposition of the productive Coal-measures. These facts indicate the long duration of the Carboniferous period and the extent of the physical changes which it included ; and it is evident that, had unconformability or extensive local denudation occurred somewhat higher in the system, it might have been regarded as forming the base of an overlying Permian series. 1 have discussed somewhat fully the relations of the flora of the Lower Carboniferous to those of the Devonian on the one hand, and of the Upper Members of the Carboniferous on the other, in a ' Report on the Fossil Plants of the Lower Carboniferous and Millstone Grit,' recently published by the Geological Survey of Canada*. I hope that I may be ablo at some future time to describe and ill.-.?trate fully the plants of the Upper Coal-formation in the same manner. DiscrssiON. Prof, Ramsay agreed with the author in thinking that these Upper Carboniferous rocks represented the Permian, and that there is a gradual passage from the Carboniferous to the PtTmian. In North Staffordshire there is some evidence of this passage, but not in other parts of England. Mr. Binney had argued that the Per- mian is the uppermost part of the CarbonifcroitS series ; but this is not true in the English area, although it is true if we consider the * Montreal, 187:3. EASTERN NOVA SCOTlA AND PRINCE-EDWARD ISLAND. 219 glob« in general. The Coal-measures are grey, black, and blue ; but in the upper portion they sometimes change to a red tint. During the Coal-period we have evidence of estuarine conditions ; but subse- quently the access of the sea was cut off, and the Permian rocks were formed in vast inland lakes. Prof. Hughes remarked that the group referred to by Principal Dawson under the head of Permo-Carboniferous could not be con- sidered as in any way proving a passage from Carboniferous to Per- mian, seeing that the Permian was altogether wanting in Eastern America, unless the fossils approached those of undoubted Permian in Europe. But he pointed out that many large portions of the so- called Permian of Europe had been already proved to be only stained Carboniferous. The fossil lists were founded on a wrong classifi- cation of the rocks, which had not yet been set right. Believing, therefore, that the Permian system must be broken up and part given back to the Lower New Eed and Magnesian Limestone series, previously so weU established, and part to the Upper Carboniferous, he was inclined to refer the Permo-Carboniferous of Principal Daw- son to the latter, the difference in the plants being only such as might reasonably be expected between the newer and older portions of a series representing immense lapse of time and changing condi- tions. Principal Dawson had shown that the beds in question were similar in almost all but colour, and conformable to the underlying undoubted Carboniferous. If, therefore, they were higher than any Carboniferous beds of England, they must be synchronous with the lower part of the unrepresented time between the Carboniferous and so-called Permian ; but being more closely connected with the lower rocks, he saw no necessity in the present state of our knowledge for such a term as Permo-Carboniferous. Prof. Ramsay could not agree with Prof. Hughes in his opinion as to the value of the term Permian. The staining of rocks occurs in two ways — namely, by infiltration from above through overlying beds, and by direct depositioii. Silurian rocks are often stained in the former manner. Mr. Evans remarked that this paper had given rise to an inter- esang discussion. The fact of the two deposits being conformable in one place and unconformable in another, did not, in his opinion, neces:?arily convert them into one system. He thought there were symptoms that the Permian would eventually be regarded as Upper Carboniferous. He believed that there was a third mode in which rocks were stained— namely, by the oxidation of iron already existing in the beds.