APPENDIX A XLIII 



peridotite or serpentine in Mt. Albert and as granite in Tabletop. 

 At about the same time several smaller molten masses rose at various 

 points to the south of the main range, but it is probable that none of 

 the eruptive materials reached the surface as volcanoes, the move- 

 ments of molten magma going on beneath a cover of sedimentary 

 rocks. 



While the mountains were being built destructive forces were at 

 work also and even before the end of the Devonian, parts of the 

 original structures had been planed down, so that upon their upturned 

 edges sandstones and coarse conglomerates of Devono-carboniferous 

 age could be piled up to a thickness of thousands of feet, as shown 

 by Clarke. These were chiefiy land formations, but there are fresh 

 water beds also, containing splendidly preserved fish at Scaumenac 

 bay on the southern side of Gaspé. There is evidence, too, of the 

 work of mountain glaciers in a bed of ancient boulder clay, including 

 striated stones. 



All of this is very ancient history, the record ending with the 

 early Carboniferous, after which, until the very latest geological 

 periods, one can only infer what took place from present conditions. 

 For details of the early geology one should consult the Geological 

 Survey Reports (1857, 1863, 1880-82, and 1882-84) and Dr. Clarke's 

 excellent accounts of the geology and palaeontology of southeastern 

 Gaspé. 



The Carving Down of the Shickshocks 



The present mountains are merely remnants of a once mightier 

 range which in its prime, toward the close of the Palaeozoic, probably 

 reached a height of 10,000 feet or more and rivalled the present 

 frontal range of the Rockies. These earlier Shickshocks differed 

 greatly from the present mountains. Their highest parts probably 

 consisted of sedimentary rocks, and the culminating ridge was ten 

 miles farther south than now. It is probable, too, that they had 

 gentler slopes, at least on the north side, than the abrupt precipices 

 one encounters at present. 



The eruptive rocks, especially the granite, must have cooled very 

 slowly beneath thousands of feet of shale and limestone and sand- 

 stone; but during the hundred or more millions of years that have 

 passed since the close of the Palaeozoic the Shickshocks have been 

 undergoing destruction through the work of wind and weather and 

 running water and only the ruins of the once lofty range remain. 



