Vegetation of Northern Cape Breton. 



267 



Along certain sections of the coast in northern Cape Breton the 

 crystalline rocks extend bluffly ovit to the shore. In places, as 

 between Aspy Bay and Neil's Harbor (Fig. 38), these rugged 

 granitic shores are relatively low. Elsewhere, as at Cape North 

 (Fig. 30) and Cape Smoky (Fig. 6), the mountains rise abruptly 

 from the sea : at Cape Smoky and along the northwest shore are 

 magnificent sea cliffs many hundred feet in height. But along 

 nnich of the coast, a low border of Carboniferous rocks — sand- 



FiGURE 7. — The Big Intervale at Aspy Bay: farms and second growth 

 forests ; Pyrus atncricana in right foreground. 



Stone, shale, dolomite, gypsum, etc. — intervenes between the 

 crystalline area and the sea. On the eastern shore (Figs. 

 5, 26, 33), and on the western shore north of Cheticamp, 

 this fringe of softer rocks is rarely more than a mile in 

 width; ordinarily it is much less. At certain places even 

 here, however, as at North River, Ingonish, Aspy Bay 

 (Figs. 7, 20), Bay St. Lawrence, and Pleasant Bay, the 

 Carboniferous lowland extends inland for several miles along 

 the rivers, forming broad intervales. In the southwestern part of 

 the area mapped (Fig. 2), in the Margaree district, the lowlands 

 are much more extensively developed than elsewhere (Fig. 21). 



