188 On Canadian Caverns, 



•which enter into the formation of the main land at Perce, the 

 former would seem especially to be a continuation of the range of 

 cliffs on the south-west side of Mai Bay. The Split Rock is an 

 almost inaccessible mass of this strata, and stands up like a 

 wall, in continuation of the limestone-cliffs of Barry Cape (Point 

 Perce). It is five hundred yards long, one hundred broad, and 

 is remarkable for the presence at its western half of two large holes 

 or arches, through one of which a sloop at full sail can pass at 

 high water. There is a lateral arch at the north east side, scarce- 

 ly perceptible from the water. 



The perforations in this rock have been formed by the action of 

 the waves of the sea, the same cause which has in the progress of 

 time effected the disjunction of these outliers from one another 

 and the main land. From the present position of the islet, which 

 lies almost north and south, I am disposed to consider its northern 

 aspect as the oldest, the two arched openings at that side forming 

 what were once the entrance to deep caverns running into the rock 

 southwards, which in the course probably of ages has been wash- 

 ed away by aqueous denudation. This view is strengthened by 

 an examination of the intervening shores as they exist at present. 

 The coast line of He Perce runs along to Bonaventure Island, 

 with an imaginary position of the land at one time between the 

 south-west part of the latter island and the shore at the Bay of 

 Perce, at the point where the cliffs commence at its southern third. 

 This gives the southern coast a semicircular course, with a low 

 shelving beach corresponding to that which now exists at Perce 

 Bay on the one side, and the western coast of Bonaventure on 

 the other ; whilst the northern coast is rocky and precipitous, 

 probpierced with many caverns, and gradually diminishing in 

 height to the southward. 



Bouchette's Cavern, Kildare. 



This cavern was visited and first described by Colonel Bouchette 

 (Surveyor-General of Canada) in the report of his official tour 

 though the new settlements of the lower province in 1824. It is 

 situated in the township of Kildare, about thirty-five miles due 

 north of the city of Montreal, but the precise locality I have been 

 unable to determine, although from the description it may be 

 close to the village of the same name. The southern part of the 

 township is traversed by a broad band of the Potsdam sandstone, 

 in continuation of the same rock running in a north-east direction 



