VIL—NOoTES ON THE SUPERFICIAL GEOLOGY OF Kinas Co., N.S. 
By Pror. A. E. CoLpDWELL, M. A:, Acadia College, 
Wolfville, N.S. 
(Read 15th January, 1896. ) 
Kings County has an average length and breadth of 35 by 
25 miles, but within this somewhat limited area there is very 
much to interest the student of geological phenomena. 
Facing the Bay of Fundy on the northern side, and protect- 
ing the rest of the county from the chilling fogs, somewhat too 
prevalent in that arm of the Atlantic, stretches the noted trap 
ridge, known as North Mountain. This extends eastward from 
the Annapolis boundary to the famous Cape Blomidon, where it 
takes a northerly direction, then doubling on itself stretches 
westward till it terminates in the rugged but picturesque cliffs 
of Cape Split. The length of this ridge in the county is fully 
45 miles, and it can be traced under the waters of Minas 
Channel for a long distance, making the rips off Cape Split and 
also those off Cape d’Or on the Cumberland side of the Channel. 
On the south of this mountain lies a valley with an average 
width of about 64 miles. The surface rock here is Triassic 
sandstone underlying the trap at their junction, as is well seen 
at Cape Blomidon. This valley is drained by four rivers, the 
Pereaux, Habitant, Canard and Cornwallis, flowing eastward 
into Minas Basin, and having at their mouths large alluvial 
deposits composed of the comminuted sandstone and trap 
deposited daily by the tides. On the Canard river alone 2500 
acres of this have been reclaimed, making most valuable hay-land. 
On the south of this valley, and generally parallel to the North 
Mountain runs the South Mountain range. At Gaspereau Lake 
this subdivides making the narrow valley of the Gaspereau 
River. The spur or offshoot of the South Mountain has its 
greatest altitude in Canaan, whence with a gradual descent it 
runs in the rear of Wolfville, and terminates at Horton Landing. 
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