578 Mineralogy and Geology of Nova Scotia. 



at the time when the innumerable boulders of granite which 

 rest on our hills of naked rock were fixed in their present po- 

 sition : the time when the surface stones of every kind were 

 thrown southward of the mass from which they were broken; 

 the time when so many large portions of the surface of the 

 solid hills of slate and whinstone were ground smooth, and 

 marked with north and south lines by the attrition of the 

 stones which the current of the deluge rolled over them. 

 From the granite of this plain having its felspar very fre- 

 quently stained with yellow oxide of iron, as well as from its 

 forming a plain, so very uncommon in a granite district, I 

 have been led to believe that it is but of inconsiderable depth, 

 and that it rests upon slate. It should be observed, that this 

 embedded stone differs much from the masses of ironstone 

 slate which are at a distance from granite, but very little from 

 that which is contiguous to it : it contains a larger proportion 

 of mica, and sometimes a few grains of felspar. I have often 

 observed that a piece of ironstone slate of 10 lb. weight 

 has communicated a yellow stain to the felspar of the rock in 

 which it is embedded for the distance of half a yard. Where- 

 ever granite is much broken, rounded and angular pieces of a 

 finer-grained granite may be observed, holding a greater than 

 common proportion of mica. I conceive that these embedded 

 fragments were not originally granite, but that, by means of 

 an internal motion in the rock, the material which forms mica 

 and felspar has been introduced from the adjoining granite, 

 and that the period may arrive when they will be no longer 

 perceptible. 



I am aware that this supposition must appear absurd to 

 many, as the growth and changes of rocks are so slow, that we 

 have not the same kind of evidence of their certainty that we 

 have of those in the vegetable kingdom. But all our large 

 masses of rock are in some degree pervious to water, and must 

 be more so to aerial fluids : and that the elements of rocks can 

 readily assume an aerial state, any person may convince him- 

 self by rubbing two pieces of quartz, hornblende, or fetid lime- 

 stone smartly together for a few seconds; when he will not only 

 perceive a strong smell, but also that he can distinguish the 

 different kinds by their peculiar smell. 



We all know that the external parts of stones are liable to 

 decay and change from an exposure to the weather, but have 

 generally, it is believed, an idea that the internal part is a dead 

 inert substance in which there is no motion, being at presen t 

 in exactly the same state that it will be at a future period. 

 Closer observation will convince us that this idea is not always 

 correct. Blocks of whinstone are often met with contain- 



