90 



THE TRIAS OK NEW RED SANDSTONE. 



B? = 



O 



£ 



^ 



of the manner in which the New Red rests on the older Carboniferous 

 beds, wherever it is in contact with them. 



2. Blomidon to Briar Island. 

 Westward of Walton, the estuary of the Avon River and Minas 

 Basin make a very wide gap in the New Red Sandstone. On the 

 western side of Minas Basin, however, this formation attains its 

 greatest width and grandest proportions ; and as this coast affords the 

 finest opportunity in the province for studying all the members of the 

 formation and their mutual relations, I shall describe 

 "^ it in detail with the aid of the section, Fig. 26. 



Blomidon is the eastern extremity of a long band 

 of trappean rocks, forming an elevated ridge, named 

 in the greater part of its length the " North Moun- 

 tains." This ridge is about 123 miles in length, 

 including two insular portions at its western extrem- 

 ity, and does not exceed five miles in breadth, except 

 near Cape Blomidon, where a narrow promontory, 

 terminating in Cape Split, extends to the northward. 

 The trap of the North Mountains presents to the 

 Bay of Fundv a range of high cliffs, and is bounded 

 on the inland side by soft red sandstones, which 

 form a long valley separating the trappean rocks 

 from another and more extensive hilly district occu- 

 pied principally by metamorphic slates and granite. 

 The trap has protected the softer sandstones from 

 the waves and tides of the bay, and probably also 

 from older denuding agents ; and where it terminates, 

 the shore at once recedes to the southward, forming 

 the western side of Minas Basin, and affording a 

 cross section of the North Mountains and the valley 

 of Cornwallis. 



At Cape Blomidon, the cliff, which in some parts 

 is 400 feet in height, is composed of red sandstone 

 surmounted by trap. The sandstone is soft, arranged 



.; 



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•i 



in beds of various degrees 



of 



coarseness 



and 



is 



| variegated by 



greenish 



bands and blotches. It 





ia 



contains veins of selenite and fibrous gypsum, the 

 latter usually parallel to the containing beds, but 

 sometimes crossing them obliquely. I found no 

 fossils in it ; it dips to the north-west at an angle of 

 16°. Resting on the sandstone, and appearing to 

 dip with it to the north-west, is a thick bed of 



