T he present paper on the Coal-measures of Nova Scotia is based on observations made by Sir Charles Lyell, with the assistance of the writer, in the summer of 1852, and on farther observations made by the writer in 1853, on whom the completion of the paper has devolved, owing to engagements which prevented Sir Charles from attending toil. The coast-section of the South Joggins is already well known to geologists as one of the finest exposures of a continuous and conformable series of carboniferous rocks, and as being especially remarkable for the number of trees and other plants preserved in situ in an erect position. In a coast-line of about seven miles in length, there is presented a vertical thickness of 14,000 feet of beds, extending from the marine limestones of the Lower Carboniferous series to the top of the Coal-formation; and, in the greater part of this distance, the beds are exposed in a vertical cliff, from 30 to 80 feet in height, and in the reefs which at low-tide are dry to the distance of 200 yards from its base. In the cliff, and on the beach, more than seventy seams of coal, with their underclays and roof-shales, can be distinctly seen, and erect plants occur at about as many distinct levels, while the action of the waves and of the tide, which rises to the height of 40 feet, prevents the collection of débris at the foot of the cliff, and continually exposes new and fresh surfaces