GASPEREAU VALLEY, NOVA SCOTIA—HAYCOCK. 365 
Triassic age, is only found along the base of the hills. Deeply 
buried by heavy accumulations of boulder-clay it forms the first 
low rise or step, but is not known to ascend the slopes of the 
southern tableland. Its contact with the rocks that form these 
slopes is not visible here, but the inclination of the beds is such 
that their continuation would carry them up over, and thus indi- 
cate that they rest upon, the next appearing beds to the south.* 
These older beds, dipping northeasterly at angles of from 12 
to 20 degrees, first appear at or near the surface within a few 
hundred yards of the above mentioned Triassic sandstone. They 
are dark grey, drab, purplish and black shales, in thin layers, 
containing abundant plant remains. These shales become more 
sandy to the south, passing first into fine-grained sandstones 
which separate in weathering into remarkably uniform thin 
lamine. These in turn are underlaid by coarser and coarser 
grey sandstones, with occasional interstratified beds of black 
mud-rock and occasional layers of conglomerate, in more and 
more variable uneven or lenticular strata, as the crest of the ridge 
and the base of the formation are approached. This whole series 
is inclined to the northeast at angles varying from 5 to 20 degrees. 
If the strata were continued, this inclination would carry them 
up over the slates which are the next appearing rocks to the 
south. 
The contact of the sandstone and slate is concealed by surface 
material, but the above mentioned geographical and structural 
relations point to the sandstones as the newer rocks. The occur- 
rence of pebbles and partially worn fragments of slate in the 
coarse sandstone beds, and the unmetamorphosed condition of 
the occasional black carbonaceous layers very near the contact 
with the slate, are convincing proofs of the subsequent deposition 
of the sandstone and shale series. 
This sandstone is largely made up of sub-angular, grey, 
translucent, quartz grains. Muscovite is common, and the 
presence of small ironstained cavities points to the former presence 
*At Avonport, this unconformable superposition is revealed by a fault which brings 
up the base of these red beds to the surface of the beach. 
