Transition Rocks of the Cataraqui. 99 



■ 



We now pass over the streamlet, whose ceaseless currents appear 

 to have deeply grooved the rock along the line of fissures by which 

 they find a vent, and every winter disrupts the solid sienite, more 

 and more, until at last its walls will yield the stream a straiter course; 

 and, it is on this spot that we arrive at an interesting place, which 

 merits a little scenic description. 



After travelling over sienite in the first instance, sandstone in the 

 second, and limestone in the third, we were struck with the singu- 

 lar freaks of nature which they presented ; but it remained for us to 

 cross a mere runnel, to enter upon a scene still more singular than 

 any we have hitherto met with, either as regards its geological or its 

 picturesque associations. 



Standing on the summit of the bank, which hems in the farther 

 side of the stream, we see, to the right, the apparently boundless 

 expanse of water, forming the first of the inland seas of Canada ; 

 before us, a rugged islet, wherein the rocks are strangely intermin- 

 gled ; beyond that, a river four miles broad, forming the beginning 

 of the real St. Lawrence, and bounded only by a long and fertile 

 island, whose lands, rising to a moderate height, seven miles in 

 breadth, conceal another broad channel of the same mighty river. 

 To our left, ravines cut through the solid sienite, and over a low 

 cape, a long glittering line of waters shows us the forms of several 

 beautiful islets, which are the commencement of the Thousand Isl- 

 ands of that river, whose name here was Iroquois, — a name, now 

 as much forgotten, as are the warlike dead who slumber on its banks. 

 The strange sight of enormous steam vessels, and of still greater 

 ships of war, at nearly a thousand miles from the main ocean, 

 framed to navigate a Mediterranean of fresh water, adds to the 

 grandeur and interest of the prospect ; but the geologist turns with 

 no less delight to the stranger prospect of the scene, w r hich meets 

 his eyes in winding round this little bank, and which we thus en- 

 deavor feebly to portray and to explain. 



This first view of the sienite in the limestone, in proceeding from 

 Point Henry towards Haldimand Cove, shows the entrance of the 

 valley where the banks gradually decline; the deep flesh colored and 

 almost brick red spots* being those portions of the sienite which are 

 bared, some of them jutting out a little, others being quite even with 



* Designated on the two cuts by the letter *. 



