On the Transition Rocks of the Cataraqui. 241 



There is no place in the world more strongly exhibiting signs of 

 volcanic action of a very ancient era, than the country bordering the 

 Restigouche River, which separates Canada from New Brunswick ; 

 and there is no part of Canada where the pencil of the artist may 

 meet with fitter employment, in delineating sublime and interesting 

 geological scenery, than there* 



At Tracadegash, in the Bay or rather Gulf of Chaleurs, there is 

 another very lofty dome, remarkable for steepness, and the whole 

 region, on entering the mouth of the Restigouche, at its confluence 

 , with the ocean in the bottom of Chaleurs Bay, exhibits in the dis- 

 tance a series of strongly marked and brightly colored cones, stand- 

 ing in deep blue relief against the sky, when viewed on a placid 

 autumnal day, and beautifully contrasted with the islands, which pro- 

 tect the entrance of that fine harbor. 



The direction of the regular rocks in this portion of country, which 

 are chiefly transition and secondary, is the same as that in the Atlan- 

 tic region of the United States, or northeast and southwest, or that 

 of the course of the St. Lawrence from Newfoundland to the state 

 of Ohio ; and here we find those curious vesicular or amygdaloidal 

 wackes, which accompany the porphyries and greenstones of Lake 

 Superior, and which appear to pass so easily into each other ; and 

 here we also find the conglomerates of Superior and Huron, a vari- 

 ety of which may even be collected on the shores of Ontario, near 

 the mouth of the Niagara. These conglomerates are chiefly re- 

 markable for containing that bright red mineral, which has hitherto 

 passed for a species of jasper, and is now supposed to be zeolitic 

 and has received the name of Huronite. from its abundance amid 



the rocks of upper Huron. 



It is very interesting to find the extreme points of so vast a range 

 as that from Gaspesia to the western country of Lake Superior, or 

 nearly three thousand miles, exhibiting the same geological facts and 

 features, which only proves the truth of the remark of an eminent 

 writer, that to American geologists we may look for the development 

 of many of the still unsettled and mysterious parts of the science. 



Whilst generalizing, however, on some of the features of this ex- 

 tensive range, we must not wholly lose sight of the object with which 

 the present essay was commenced, which was merely to elucidate 

 the circumstances connected with the transition rocks of the Cata- 

 raqui, or that portion of the transition formation of the great Lacus- 

 trian chain, which is connected by the Thousand Islands with the 



Vol. XXX.— No. 2. 31 



