GASPEREAU VALLEY, NOVA SCOTIA—HAYCOCK 367 
above the Gaspereau Valley is about 200 feet, and, like the similar 
beds on the northern slope, it dips to the northeast or directly 
into the hill, and seemingly must pass beneath the slate. That it 
does not is proved by the presence of fragments of the slate and 
vein quartz in the sandstone itself, and some other explanation 
of this relation must be sought. 
Along the lower slopes to the south, and in the bottom of 
the Gaspereau Valley, the underlying rock is concealed by sur- 
face material; but along its south side the brooks from the 
southern tableland have plowed deep furrows at right angles to 
the valley int surface material and rock formations beneath, 
and have revealed the whole structure from the top of the 
terraces which flank the river to the level of the high land beyond. 
The first rocks to appear from beneath the terraces in the 
Angus brook are grey or brown sandy shales in rather thin 
layers. Their surfaces are abundantly ripple-marked, the ridges 
of the ripples running generally north 70° west. Worm trails 
are common ; and the surfaces frequently bear the imprints of 
stems of Lepidodendra. These beds dip to the north at an angle 
of about 20 degrees, and the brooks flow directly across them 
at right angles to the strike and in the direction of the 
dip, so that in stepping from bed to bed as they successively 
come out from beneath each other, one is passing to older and 
older strata while ascending the brook and the slope. There is 
a good deal of local variation in the direction of the strike and 
in the amount of inclination from the horizontal. An average 
strike, however, would be a little north of west; an average 
dip about 15 degrees in a general direction a little east of north. 
The beds vary in composition from sandy to argillaceous and 
carbonaceous shales, and in coloring from grey or brown to black 
according to the abundance of organic matter and the degree to 
which they have been open to the passage of underground water. 
Here, as in the series of strata lying onthe north slope of the 
Wolfville ridge, the finer sediments are succeeded by coarser and 
coarser materials with occasional interstratified layers of black 
mud-rock as we pass down into the series and up the slope of the 
