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Heron Island

The red sandstone and conglomerate of the Bonaventure Formation make Heron Island a prominent feature along the Acadian Coastal Drive near Charlo. The geology was described by Robert Wheelcock Ells of the Geologic Survey of Canada in his 1887 report “A History of New Brunswick Geology”:

On Heron Island which is in the Bay of Chaleurs about nine miles southeast of Dalhousie the rocks of the Bonaventure formation are well developed. The shales here contain remains of plants which have never yet been described while the sandstones shew impressions of reptilian footmarks which are the only ones yet found in New Brunswick of this age though somewhat similar tracks have been recognized at several points in Nova Scotia in strata of not much higher horizon.