2 Macfarlane on the Primitive Formations 



occur in Norway, principally in regard to their petrographical 

 and economic characters. I shall follow the order in which they 

 are mentioned above, inserting at the end of each description, a 

 few remarks on their development in Canada. The various facts 

 related in the following descriptions are principally derived from 

 such authorities as Naumaun and Keilhau ; my personal obser- 

 vations of the districts under notice, having only served to im- 

 print on my mind the descriptions of these and other philoso- 

 phers. The particulars narrated as to the various mining estab- 

 lishment^', are to a great extent however, the results of my own 

 experience and observation. As to the various features touched 

 upon with regard to Canada, my principal source of information 

 has of course been the reports of the officers of the Geological 



Survey. 



I. The Primitive Gneiss Formation. 



In Keilhau's "First attempt towards a Geological Map of 

 Norway," as yet the only complete geological map of the coun- 

 try published, there are distinguished three geographical divisions, 

 belono-ino- to the Primitive Gneiss formation, separated from each 

 other by groups of rocks, belonging either to the primitive slate, 

 the eruptive granite and syenite, or to the Silurian series. 

 The first of these is situated high up in Finmark, its most north- 

 ern point being tlie North Cape. The second stretches from 

 Beiern-fiord, north of Trondhiem, along the whole coast of Nor- 

 way, southward to Christiansand, and from thence north-east- 

 ward to Kragero. To this division, the gneiss districts of 

 Kongsberg and Modum also belong. The third division is that 

 lying to the eastward of Christiania-fiord and lake Miosen. 

 These three divisions form only the most westerly parts of the 

 great Primitive Gneiss formation, which extends through Sweden 

 to Finland, and which is the characteristic feature of Scandina- 

 vian geology. The rocks which constitute this formation are the 

 following : — 



1. Gneiss in many varieties, the most common being what is 

 called by Keilliau, characteristic gneiss^ and which he thus de- 

 scribes. " Tlie rock consists of white or reddish white feldspar, 

 (orthoclase), grey quartz and black mica; the feldspar and quartz 

 being combined with each other granularly, and the mica ar- 

 ranged in this mass in parallel layers ; so that the structure is 

 more an alternatively granular and slaty one, than a regularly 

 slaty structure, with quite equal distributions of the three con- 



