PART I. INTRODUCTION

GENERAL SETTING

The Saint John area includes the central portions of Saint John and Kings counties, which border the Bay of Fundy from Saint John ¹ to Saint Martins. Extending 35 miles along the coast in a strip about 15 miles wide, it comprises approximately 500 square miles of land, extending between parallels 45°10′ and 45°30′ north latitude, and 65°30′ and 66°10′ west longitude. It is easily accessible by land and by water from the city of Saint John.

The age relations of certain rock formations, both sedimentary and igneous, have proved puzzling to geologists, because of a scarcity of index fossils and because of faults along contacts within this severely compressed zone of the Appalachian structural province. Geological investigation of these rocks was begun by Abraham Gesner, whose report as provincial geologist was published in 1839. Since then the work has been carried on by independent geologists and by members of the Geological Survey of Canada, of whom L. W. Bailey, George F. Matthew, and R. W. Ells are outstanding pioneers. Although the complicated relationships of all the rock formations have not been wholly deciphered, the writers have revised the stratigraphy and the structural interpretation of this easterly land, which is of special interest in its bearing on sub-Atlantic conditions and on trans-Atlantic correlation.

The base for the geological map is compiled from two sheets published by the Dominion of Canada—the Saint John sheet, published by the Geological Survey of Canada in . . . .