Mineralogy and Geology of Nova Scotia. 321 
iron pyrites, this coast, so far as we have traced it, presents noth- 
ing of mineralogical interest; yet the lover of the picturesque will 
be delighted with its scenery, which, although wanting, it is true, 
the majestic outline of the opposite coast, is more agreeably di- 
versified by the alternations of different rocks, the variable manner 
in which the strata of slate are seen to run, and the deep glens 
that have been formed by the sea between their protruding edges. 
Of one of these spots, we find a view in the “Atlantic Neptune,” 
showing the limestone caverned out by the sea. 
The quartz rock before alluded to, is the only rock in Nova 
Scotia, of which we have omitted to mention the mineralogical 
characters. It is represented on the map as alternating with the 
clay-slate, and constituting strata of great dimensions. This is 
not strictly true to nature, for it alternates so frequently, as to 
render it impossible to give an exact view of its arrangement ; 
but the proportion of this rock to the slate is correctly shown, 
by thus collecting the numerous narrow beds of it into a 
few large divisions. It occupies but a small part of the country. 
It is composed, as its name indicates, of siliceous matter, or 
quartz, which is fine granular, but more frequently compact, and 
breaks, not unusually, with a conchoidal fracture. It is some- 
times white, and its grains are transparent ; but it generally hasa 
greyish or bluish tint, arising, apparently, from admixture with the 
contiguous slate, with which it is doubtless coéval. It frequently 
passes into flinty or siliceous slate, and is sometimes so intimate- 
ly blended with the argillite into which it passes, that the eye 
cannot distinguish where the one begins or the other terminates. 
The layers of siliceous slate are often separated by thin folia of 
argillaceous slate, while the true quartz rock possesses no strati- 
fied appearance, and never separates into layers like the slate. 
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