80 Essay on the Transition Rocks of the Cataraqui. 
an almost continuous line along its centre, which have a very curious 
appearance, but proceed from the wasting away of a layer of amor- 
phous crystals of carbonate of lime, which as they are generally ei- 
ther egg shaped or rounded exteriorly, may have proceeded from a 
deposite of testaceous remains. 
Above the iron brown band is another much more inclining to 
white, which is again followed by a bed approaching to a bluish green, 
and upon that bed a thick brownish and very fissile layer is superim- 
posed, which is capped by debris and soil from the hill above. 
The hill now dips towards the lake, and the connection of this 
sandstone with the usual limestone of the locality is lost, and pro- 
ceeding along the shores covered with numerous boulders of foreign 
rocks, we arrive, in a short transit, at a spot where the bank, again 
rising, shews more indications of the soft stone. 
Here a struggle between lime and silica appears to have occurred, 
for the silicous particles have disappeared in a layer composed of 
calcareous tufa, which is visible for some feet, and being loosely co- 
herent is easily extracted. It lies above the hard rock, and proba- 
bly between it and the soft, which gives indications of terminating 
its course here. The specific gravity of this tufaceous bed is the 
same as that of the adjacent sandstone, 2.6. 
The shores of the lake now become covered with boulders m 
which feldspar chiefly predominates, and from their size and number, 
they hinder the observer both in his progress and examinations. ‘The 
limestone beds occasionally, however, present their bassets towards 
Haldimand cove, whereby may be traced the usual uniformity of 
their deposition, and it may not be uninteresting to the geologist t0 
give an accurate section of those beds which have here been denu- 
ded in cutting for a well, and in which the almost regular alternation 
of layers of only a few inches in thickness at every third or fourth 
stratum of beds generally exceeding a foot, is very remarkable. 
Could these deposits have been regulated by the comparative @ 
sence or presence of the solvent, which in the ancient seas, caused 
the precipitation of the lime from the fluid, or were these regular 
formations of almost primitive matter, caused to vary in their qual 
tum by being precipitated at long intervals, which is indeed the most 
probable, or how can we otherwise account for their regular stratifi- 
cation and the usual accompaniments of roughened surfaces whi 
generally are coated with a thin white or black layer. The lowe! 
bed must in short, have been always hardened, before the upper 9" 
