﻿184 POT-HOLES. July, 



out a break for twenty miles further up, and in some 

 places they are seen to rest upon a grey shale. At 

 one place, where there is a good section, it was 

 perceived that the surface of the shale on which 

 the sand reposed was uneven, and much indented 

 also by pot-holes and projecting tongues ; the 

 gravel and sand descending into the pits, and the 

 points of shale rising among the sand. The simi- 

 larity of these shale and sand-clifFs to those at the 

 junction of the Clear-water and Elk Rivers is very 

 great ; but the shale generally is not so bitumi- 

 nous as at the latter locality. The surface of the 

 country above is strewed with gravel and boulders, 

 and in the decay of the bank these fall down and 

 line the channel of the river. When the water is 

 high, as it is in the spring, little flat beach is to be 

 seen ; but in the autumn, the pavement of boulders 

 to which I have already alluded is exposed. Among 

 these, above the Rock by the River's Side, I ob- 

 served a considerable number of granites, some 

 gneiss, many sienites, basalts, and greenstones ; 

 also felspar rock, felspar porphyries, Lydian-stones, 

 quartz rock, and limestones of various kinds, with 

 quartzose sandstones, white, red, and spotted. 



I have been disposed to give a more full abstract 

 of the notes I made in descendino; and ascending 

 this part of the river, because, in following its ob- 

 lique course of more than fifty miles, from the first 



