OF LABRADOR AND MAINE. 215 



faced with steep precipices of syenite. From off this cape are seen in the interior lofty 

 mountains, of which the central and highest peak is called Mount Misery, which in this clear 

 climate can be plainly seen in pleasant weather by fishermen at a distance of seventy-five 

 miles in an air line. At Strawberry Harbor on the south side of Thomas Bay are lofty sye- 

 nite hills. This point is fifty-five miles north of Cape Webuc. It is a small deep hole in the 

 coast, like a ''purgatory," and an amphitheatre of rock rises around it in huge steps, afford- 

 ing a striking illustration of the power of the frost and waves on this exposed coast. The 

 rock is a hard tough flesh-colored syenite, with deep vertical and horizontal fissures result- 

 ing from the decomposition of thin trap dykes, thus causing huge blocks of syenite to be 

 detached and fall down. In sailing twenty-five miles up this bay, the gneiss rises on 

 each side from the ocean into hills 800 to 1000 feet in height. About Hopedale, which is 

 in latitude 55° 30', the rocks are gneiss. Behind the Mission House the strata are much 

 disturbed locally ; at one locality the gneiss with veins of quartz and syenite trends north- 

 westerly and dips 60° west. Trap dykes, prismatic in places, cross the island in a northeast- 

 erly direction. 



Northward of Hopedale the "Aulezavic gneiss" of Lieber, forms the coast range of 

 mountains, which, according to Lieut. Curtis (Trans. Geol. Soc. London, Vol. ii. 1773), rise 

 to a height of 2733 feet at Mount Thoresby, on an island south of Kiglapyd. This observer 

 states that Kiglapyd is evidently higher, but inferior to Kaumagok, which "• has been seen 

 thirty leagues from land," and is lower than Nachvoak which must be 3000 feet high. 



At Aulezavik Island near Cape Chudleigh, according to Mr. Lieber, 1 " syenitic gneiss is 

 the true rock of the region, the normal one, although so many modifications occur that 

 entirely new rocks are produced ; having no direct connection with the basic syenitic 

 gneiss. In consequence of this we have beds in which quartz alone occurs, or beds entirely 

 occupied by the red feldspar of the region, as is seen with very beautiful distinctness in 

 some of the dangerous Pikkintit Islands. Again, some beds are composed of white quartz 

 and tourmaline as in Norway, others contain scarcely anything but black hornblende, or 

 tourmaline and garnets. Some are composed of green hornblende, approximating to 

 actinolith. From this there seems to be a passage into a coarse diorite rather porphyroid 

 in its character, but occurring in regular intercalated beds, not in dykes, and evincing no 

 sign of an eruptive origin. Again, some beds are composed of quartz and garnet, while 

 others are studded with a beautiful golden-colored mica. A rock which appears identical 

 with aphanite, although not at all igneous, I also found, yet, with all this apparent 

 variety, the transitions are too gradual to permit the differences to leave any effect on 

 the landscape." 



For some notes on the geology of Hamilton Inlet we are indebted to Mr. Davies — "In 

 some places mica slate was found — it is said that the Mealy mountains are composed of 

 this rock. I had no opportunity of verifying this fact, as I did not visit them. Granite was 

 only seen in one place, viz., on Lake Keith, an expansion of the Grand River, about one 

 hundred and thirty miles from its mouth. Specimens of Chlorite schist were also procured 

 on this lake, as was also a specimen of sandstone, with disseminated grains of iron pyrites. 

 At some distance below the lake, Primary Marble, of a beautiful whiteness, was seen crop- 

 ping out at the edge of the water ; it was found in contact with a quartz rock passing into 

 mica slate, having crystals of common garnet imbedded in it ; this was the only place where 

 limestone of any sort was seen. 



1 Loc. cit., p. 405. 

 MEMOIRS host. soc. NAT. nisT. Vol. I. Pt. 2. 55 



