104 



PRE-CAMBRIAN SERPENTINES. 



Of these very little can be said ; they seem to be limited to the 

 almost extreme easterly portion of the Dominion. Mr. Hugh Fletcher, 

 who so very carefully studied that section of the country, reports serpen" 

 tines to occur in three different places : — 



First, in Macdonald Brook, Cape Breton Island, where white, 

 pyritous crystalline limestone, lemon-} ellow serpentine limestone, and 

 pale-green brown- weathering limestone, and tremolite in small fibrous 

 tufts, occur between bluish-grey and red felsite and bluish-porphyritic 

 felsite. Then on Kelvin Brook, in the same island, a cliff of coarse, 

 reddish felsite, associated with greenish and red, mottled, soft serpentine, 

 is in immediate contact with i*eddish coarse grit and conglomerate along 

 an iri'egular line which runs N. 9° E. 



On Campbell Brook, eastern Nova Scotia, some white crystalline 

 limestone appears, some beds of which are covered on the surface with 

 large knobs of light-greenish and white serpentine, but the hills are 

 composed mainly of syenite. 



These resemble very much the Laurentian serpentines in colour and 

 in their association with crystalline limestones. No minerals of eco- 

 nomic value were found in them. 



CAMBRIAN SERPENTINES. 



The most easterly outcrops of these are found in the Shickshock 

 Mountains, Gaspe Peninsula. 



*Mount Albert, which is one of the main peaks, is composed of 

 serpentine. The thickness of this great mass is estimated to be about 

 1,000 feet The whole of it presents evidence of stratification, in some 

 parts remarkably clear and distinct, in others more obscure. Much of 

 the lower 600 feet is bottle-green in colour, with beds towards the top 

 of a streaked and mottled reddish and greenish brown, much studded 

 with small crystals of diallage. The upper 400 feet display the bedding 

 very beautifully, by difference of colour on the weathered exterior, as 

 well as in freshly exposed surfaces. The weathered surfaces are marked 

 by a set of red and opaque white bands, the white broader than the red, 

 varying from one-eighth of an inch to an inch in thickness, and becom- 

 ing often interstratified with layers of a brownish fawn colour, which 



^From Geology of Canada, 1863, page 266. 



