108 Lieut. Baddeley on the geognosy . 
Between this place and Le Petit Sagueuay, on the opposite 
shore, such a geognostical uniformity prevails as to render the 
collecting of specimens superfluous ; indeed the same remark is 
so far applicable to the whole of the country we traversed, that 
a dozen well-chosen fragments of rock, with the necessary ob 
servations upon them, would convey to the geologist almost as 
much information as he would acquire by going over the same 
ground himself. Let it not for an instant be conceived, that 
our observations are believed to be the necessary ones ;_ the wri- 
ter knows them to be altogether insufficient to convey any thing 
more than a very general idea of the geognosy of the country. 
In a small stream, a short distance below Le Petit Saguenay, 
the rocks were observed to be intersected ina remarkable man- 
ner by veins of quartz and felspar, sometimes alone, at others 
united together forming an aggregate. Frequently these veins 
were divided exactly in the centre by a seam of trap; they have 
the same bearing generally as the stratified rock they traverse, 
namely north-east and south west, but they are often much con- 
torted without losing ultimately this character. The trap is 
seen alternating in thick strata also. The predominating rock 
here is syenitic gneiss, A deception arises sometimes from a 
source which is not suspected when attempting to distinguish, 
as is generally easy, by the external surface of rocks, between 
the trap and syenite ; the syenitic rocks have usually a whitened 
exterior, but sometimes, though rarely, it is as black as that of 
the trap, in which case a fragment must be detached before the 
rock can be known. This sort of deception was experienced 
be- 
junction; the nature of the rocks, the recorded proofs of the violence of 
earthquakes on the northern shore in former times, and above all their 
frequent occurrence at the present day, though no longer of an alarming 
character, are circumstances which favour this opinion, A great wave 
would not have acted longitudinally but transversely, orinthe direction of 
least resistance. The insignificent streams which enter this noble river have 
had little effect in forming it, and the operation of tides and maritime cur- 
rents, thovgh more effectual, can have been only partial and secondary, 
