PICTOU ISLAND — MACKAY. 77 



the coast line such as that from Cardigan Bay to East Point. 

 Pictou Island would thus appear to be the highest part of the 

 crest of a suljiuarine ridge of elevation of the bottom of the 

 strait, which may be traced from the mainland thrcjugh the 

 islands outside Carriboo Harbor and a series of shoals in seme 

 places reaching to within 10 or 12 feet of the surface of the 

 water for a distance of eleven miles to Pictou Island, then for 

 live miles in the island itself, then for about 20 miles more 

 northeasterly until it passes beyond a line from Cape George to 

 Cape Bear. This elevation in the floor of the strait may be com- 

 pared to a huge submarine monster whose head is the islands 

 abutting against the mainland at Carriboo Harbor, whose neck 

 and shoulders are the six or seven miles of shoals and banks, 

 extending to the Pictou Islan.d, whose humped or crested liack 

 is the live miles of the island itself, and whose submerged tail 

 extends in the same general direction, N. (30" E., midway between 

 and subparallel to the coast line on each side, until it vanishes in 

 the wide bay beyond the capes about forty miles from its head. 



The floor of the strait and the land on each side appear to 

 rest on Upper Carboniferous or Permian rocks. The base of 

 this group is considered to be the belt of New Glasgow conglom- 

 erate lying immediately above the coal measures. This con- 

 glomerate belt is also sub-parallel to the coast line. From 

 Merigomish to New Glasgow it lies about N. 70° E., while the 

 coast line easterly is about 60°. West of New Glasgow the. 

 conglomerate gradually curves to (SO*^ and ultimately runs nearly 

 east and west, tending to Ijecome sub-parallel to the sharp 

 flexure of the coast line in the vicinity of Pictou Harbor. 



Pictou Harbor is a narrow depression in the sandstone rocks, 

 newer than the conglomerate, caused l)y a downward folding as 

 nnich below the general surface of the country as the deepest 

 channel of the straits is below the coast line. The axis of this 

 synclinal depression runs about N. 60° E. parallel to and between 

 the Merigomish and Antigonish coast line on the one side and the 

 Pictou Island sub-marine ridge on the other side ; which suggests 

 that this half of the bottom of the strait is floored with the sand- 

 stones on each side of Pictou Harbor, and that the sharp flexure 



