416 On Metallic Minerals, 



magnetic attraction which exists there. I believe no 

 geologist would suspect its operation upon passing his eye 

 over the country. As far as I am acquainted with it, the 

 soil is alluvial, with a topping of vegetable earth and no 

 rocks or mountains near enough to effect the compass in so 

 remarkable a manner. The following quotation from 

 Guillemard is descriptive of the soil in this portion of the 

 Province : " La riviere Sorel apr&s avoir quitte le bassin 

 de Chambly, mouille le pied d'une monlagne appellee 

 Beloeil. Entre cette riviere et le fleuve St. Laurent, est 

 line plaine immense, sur cette plaine entirement uni, il ne 

 se trouve point de roche et presqu'aucune pierre. En creu- 

 santon trouve jusqu'a une profondeur considerable, des sol 

 des differentes especes, du sable, de Targille, de la terre 

 begelale, et dans beaucoup d'endroits, une mitre matiere 

 b^gelal noir, ressemblant beaucoup a une espece de tourbe 

 appellee peat," he adds the summit of the Beloeil mountain 

 is a deep grey and large grained granite ; it contains little 

 mica, but a considerable quantity of black schorl ; the 

 sides of the siuumit are principally composed of a greyish 

 black schistus, very compact, some parts of which I'esemble 

 basalt in form and grain. In descending the Sorel, rocks 

 are no where seen, at Sorel the banks are of a fine clay, 

 full of mica. 



Is it not possible that M. Guillemard may have mistaken 

 that for granite, which is a trap rock of the same age and 

 character as the Montreal mountain? Black crystallized 

 hornblende often much resembles black schorl ; basaltic 

 hornblende is associated with the former in the Montreal 

 mountain. I have hazarded this conjecture without having 

 seen either a specimen of the Beloeil mountain, or any other 

 account of it than M. Guillemard's, because if correct, it 



