Mineralogy and Geology of Nova Scotia. 265 
a precipice or “bluff” which exhibits a remarkable contrast 
to the low sandstone hills with which it is connected; and stand- 
ing between them and the sea, serves to protect them from 
its ravages. 
This cape will not furnish the collector with any mineral 
specimens of interest; but as this was the first place where the 
junction of the sandstone, shale, and trap was observed, it de- 
serves to be mentioned on account of its geological interest. 
The sandstone and shale, which will be particularly described 
hereafter, are seen at this place to dip beneath the trap, at an an- 
gle of twenty or thirty degrees, and, in their passage, are observed 
to become singularly altered in appearance. The strata of these 
substances, before regular and distinctly parallel, are found al- 
together broken up and lying confusedly in various directions ; 
the sandstone has changed to a dark red color, is more compact, 
and has become intimately blended with the shale, so that the 
eye with difficulty distinguishes the substance peculiar to each. 
The sharp angular fragments of the trap are next observed, and 
the whole becomes a distinct breccia, growing more compact as 
it dips beneath the superincumbent rock. The portion of the 
breccia in contact with the trap exhibited the small cavities of 
vesicular amygdaloid, as-it passed into its dominion, and led us to 
believe that the shale and sandstone combined with the trap, and 
produced amygdaloid by their union. The numerous instances, 
in which this occurred, as it did in fact at every junction of these 
rocks in Nova Scotia, and the absence of trap-tuff and amygda- 
loid in places where this did not happen, or where, although the 
sandstone, &c. were not visible, it could fairly be inferred to 
exist beneath, led us irresistibly to this conclusion. That this 
process was attended by heat is inferred from numerous cireum- 
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