12 (4E<)L<)(iI('AL NOTES. 



-showing the great heat that must have come from the ahcending 

 column of molten rock. And they remind me of the condition 

 of the sandstones near a l)urnt coal seam at Glace Bay. Cape 

 Breton. This seam is said to have been mined by the French 

 and to have been set on fire by them on the subjugation of the 

 island by the English, and at Burnt Head, where it crops out on 

 the shore, the rocks iiave been altered for a distance of about 

 500 feet and from 15 to ^5 feet in thickness above the seam. The 

 latter being burnt awa} , the rocks have descended, distorted in 

 all directions, the grey slates burnt to a bright red so hard as to 

 ring when struck, and the coal beds and shales changed to a 

 porous cinder and coke conglomerate, having numerous pieces 

 of the bright red slates mixed up in the black matrix. Large 

 boulders of this curious conglomerate are strewn about the shore, 

 and the cliffs themselves are a fine sight from the l.inghtness and 

 variety of their color and the irregularity of their form. 



It may be said that, as the trap rocks of Blomidon and the 

 North Mountains of Nova Scotia belong to the Secondary or 

 Mezozoic age and not to the Palaeozoic, they should not be cited 

 as a result of the great accumulation of deposits of Palaeozoic 

 time. They were })roduced, however, very early in the Second- 

 ary and mark the end of the rock-making formations in the 

 Northern and Eastern part of this continent. It would appear, 

 then, that after this eruption the Eastern Provinces and the 

 North Eastern States became the tsolid and stable crust of the 

 Earth which they are now. Their elevation has changed many 

 times since then, and the conformation of their surface has also 

 changed through erosion and deposit, but no lasting or extreme 

 subsidence has occurred, and no great beds of deposits have been 

 laid down, such as the older formations, which are often thous- 

 ands of feet in thickness. To this we owe our freedom from dan- 

 ger from earthquake and volcano. 



The Palaeozoic age was of immense duration, probably lasting 

 tens of millions of years, and volcanic disturbances were by no 

 means confined to its close. The formation of the great beds of 

 shales which underlie almost the whole northwestern corner of 

 New Brunswick, and have produced the fertile lands of Carleton 



