GESPEREAU VALLEY, NOVA SCOTIA—HAYCOCK. sto 
the direct northward flow of the drainage from that ancient 
land ; and this little indentation of the coast line was doubtless 
the estuary of a small river. The absence of coarse conglomerates 
from the basal sandstones, indicates quiet sheltered waters along 
the shores. With the exception of ice-transported material, 
the shore deposits of the Minas Basin average about the same in 
coarseness as these Lower Carboniferous or Devonian deposits. 
This would lead to the inference that the ancient Bay was but 
little more extensive than the Minas Basin of to-day, and that 
the shores were not exposed to more violent wave action than 
the more exposed portions of the borders of the present Basin. 
This absence of conglomerates also indicates gentle slopes of 
the land, but we can scarcely do more than speculate as to the 
character of the interior, The lowest sandstones are evidently 
made up of the more or less decomposed constituents of a granitic 
rock. The present boundary of the granite country is to the 
south, not nearer than from seven to ten miles, and because of 
the lowering of the surface of the land by erosion in subsequent 
geological times, this boundary must be nearer now than when 
these beds were laid down. In what manner all this material 
could have been transported from the inland areas whence it 
evidently was derived, is a most perplexing problem. 
The land was clothed with a luxuriant vegetation, as the 
abundant plant remains testify, but the picture of the life that 
inhabited it must be sketched by the paleontologist. The 
Geological Record is not one of living forms alone, but geo- 
graphical and scenic features have a history that forms a too- 
often overlooked part of that record. This history of the 
Gaspereau Valley is but a single instance in the evolution of the 
topographic features of the Nova Scotia of to-day. Whether 
the facts have been rightly arranged and interpreted, must be 
left to the judgment of those who follow; but the great age of 
this valley, and its checkered history, the latest stages of which 
have not been looked into, are reminders of the wealth of 
material about us for study, and of the exceedingly slow and 
labored process by which the landscape has come to be as it to-day. 
