318 Messrs. Jackson and Alger on the 
truth, represent nothing but a vast facade of columnar trap. It 
is possible that the cape, at the time this sketch of it was taken, 
was much higher than it is at present; a change, which, if we 
consider the lapse of sixty years, and take into account also the 
destructive action of the sea, which in other places effects changes 
as great in one twentieth part of that time, cannot certainly be 
thought very remarkable. But the exact features of the spot 
must then have been strangely overlooked by the artist ; for if he 
had correctly copied them, his picture could have never led to 
the error of supposing its composition to be of trap instead of 
slate. 
No trap rock, in any form, occurs on the southern shore of St. 
Mary’s Bay ; even the dykes that occasionally penetrate the slate 
of the South mountains, and the drifted masses strewed over their 
surface, are here entirely wanting; and, if we except these, no 
indications of it occur in any part of Nova Scotia beyond the con- 
fines of the North mountain range. Its occurrence on the Island 
of Cape Breton has been barely mentioned by Messrs. Smith 
and Brown; and weregret that these gentlemen have not been 
able to give us some details respecting it. It may indeed be 
looked for wherever the sandstone prevails, as these two rocks 
are commonly associated. 
The coast, of which we are now speaking, consists of slate, 
occasionally presenting, among its water-worn cliffs, interesting 
sections of quartz rock and beds of transition limestone. But 
the quartz rock of this place has not the usual compact, homoge- 
neous character of that (soon to be mentioned) around Halifax, 
where it appears in more powerful strata, and, from its power of 
more effectually resisting the elements, stands up above the slate 
in prominent ridges, suggesting to the observer the appearance of 
