106 



Mount Albert, is either bare rock or is slightly clothed with a scattering 

 growth of stunted spruces from five to twelve feet high, and small ponds 

 with marshy edges occupy the depressions. The width of this mass of 

 serpentine and associated rocks is about three-eighths of a mile. It 

 rests upon the south flank of the hornblende schists, and terminates 

 abruptly on the east bank of the branch, though a spur from its southern 

 flank, of forty yards in width, crosses the stream in close contact with 

 crystalline dolomitic rock. 



The serpentine of this mountain apparently lacks the stratification 

 seen in that of Mount Albert, and no traces of asbestos or chromic iron 

 were discovered. On weathered surfaces it is exceedingly rough and 

 ochreous. 



Although the serpentines of this area have generally been regarded 

 as an integral portion of the metamorphic series and contemporaneous 

 in age, there are indications, at several places, which point to an erup- 

 tive origin. The position of the eastern or Mount Albert mass in par- 

 ticular, breaking, as it does, apparently across strata of Pre-Cambrian 

 and Silurian age, gives it the aspect of an immense dyke, while the 

 exposure noted as crossing the Salmon Branch, much of which is of 

 peculiar character, is also like an intrusive rock. 



In the Geological Survey Report for 1832-81, Mr. A. P. Low 

 reports as follows of the olivine and serpentine of the Shickshocks : — 



" Thsse rocks are largely developed at the eastern extremity of the 

 Shickshock range, and form the prominent peak of Mount Albert. 

 They extend in a south-westerly course from the west side of Table-top 

 Mountain across the south branch of the Ste. Anne River to Mount 

 Albert, which is about the centre of the mass, and thence to the head 

 water of the east fork of the Salmon Branch of the Cascapedia River, 

 making a total length of twelve miles. The greatest breadth is four 

 miles, on Mount Albert, but the average is not more than two and a 

 half miles. 



The rocks are chiefly olivine, more or less changed into a dark 

 green serpentine, associated with patches of mottled brownish-red, the 

 whole overlaid by banded beds. The green serpentine has sometimes a 

 course, fibrous structure (picrolite), but the quantity is small and the 

 quality not fine enough to make it commercially valuable as asbestos. 



