214 GEOLOGY OF CAPE BRETON.—GILPIN. 
Art. IV.—THE GEOLOGY OF CAPE BRETON. THE MINERAIS OF 
THE CARBONIFEROUS.—By E. GILPIN, JR., F.GS., 
INSPECTOR. OF MINES, &c.—Part IV. 
Read January 14th, 1889. 
In my last contribution I gave an account of the Coal Beds of 
Cape Breton, and purpose in this paper to attempt a brief 
description of the more prominent of the remaining minerals 
known to oecur in the sub-divisions of the Carboniferous in this 
Island. 
The gypsum is certainly the most conspicuous of these. It 
recalls the white cliffs of Old England, and may some day 
inspire a local muse. It is a first cousin of the chalk too, for 
here the coy oxide of lime has allied herself with the more 
stable and powerful sulphuric acid, instead of the etherial, 
volatile, and social carbonic acid. The former in the furnace parts 
readily from her consort, while the latter boils, drops a tear of 
water of composition, but does not dissolve partnership. 
There is one notable geological fact connected with the gypsum 
of the Maritime Provinces, its occurrence in measures of palzeozoic 
age, the marine limestone formation of the Carboniferous. In 
nearly all other countries it is of much later age. This led to 
much confusion in the earlier attempts to outline Nova Scotian 
geology, and it was, I believe, first placed in its true position, 
below the coal measures, through the researches of Mr. R. Brown, 
and Sir Wm. Dawson. 
I have already described the marine limestone formation of the 
Island, and followed it, now skirting the Bras d’Or Lake, or 
mantling round the older hills, or filling the valleys of the 
numerous rivers of the Margaree, River Dennys, and Middle 
River districts. In it the gypsum is met rising like a ruined 
marble palace of Eastern climes from the waters of the Bras d’Or, 
or frowning in a cliff, hollowed into a thousand little caves and 
ioe : 
