On Canadian Caverns, 187 



Triassic or New Red Sandstone formation, which forms their base, 

 being surmounted or topped by masses of trap rocks. The high- 

 est of the Magdalen s is Entry Island, with an elevation of five 

 hundred and eighty feet ; its red cliffs rise at its north-east point 

 to three hundred and fifty feet, and are what they have been 

 described, truly magnificent and beautiful. The soft and friable 

 character of the brick-red cliffs forming the shores of these islands, 

 with their remarkable capes and headlands, have in many places 

 yielded to the force of the waves, and have become worn into 

 arches and caverns. This is most strikingly manifest at Bryon 

 Island, which is nearly surrounded by perpendicular or overhang- 

 ing cliffs, which are broken into holes and caverns, and fast giving 

 way to the action of the waves. From the same cause are to be 

 seen detached peninsular masses in a tottering state, which now 

 and then assume grotesque forms. There is something peculiar- 

 ly interesting in this singular group of islands, lying so isolated 

 about the centre of the great Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and curiosity 

 would be well repaid by a visit from one of the neighbouring 

 ports. 



Caverns and Arched Rocks at Perc:6, Gasp:6. 



On the eastern coast of Gaspe, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 there is a range of limestone cliffs, which commence on the south- 

 west side of Mai Bay, at the perforated rock, called He Perc^, and 

 thence run in a north-north-west direction. Immediately south 

 of these cliffs, which are six hundred and sixty-six feet in perpen- 

 dicular height above the level of the sea, as described by Bayfield, 

 are the Perce mountains, the highest of which. Mount Perce, is 

 twelve hundred and thirty feet, and is visible forty miles out to 

 sea. 



The town " He Perce," as it was called in Charlevoix's time, 

 occupies the shores of Perce Bay, running from point Perce to 

 White Head. This writer mentions in the second volume of his 

 " Histoire de la Nouvelle France," p. 71, that Sir William Phipps, 

 in his expedition against Quebec, landed at He Perce in Sept., 

 1690, pillaged the town and robbed the church. 



A reef connects the Perce Rock with Point -Perc^. This re- 

 markable perforated rocky islet, which gives the name of Perc^ 

 to this locality, is two hundred and ninty-nine feet in height, pre- 

 cipitous all round, and bold to seaward. This islet and the island 

 of Bonaventure are considered outliers of the conglomerate rocks 



