616 THE LOWER SILURIAN PERIOD. 



The county of Yarmouth presents a succession of low ridges of slate 

 and quartz rock, separated on the coast by narrow inlets, and inland 

 by valleys, often containing lakes and bogs. The prevailing strike 

 appears to approach more nearly to north and south than in other 

 parts of this district. Near the town of Yarmouth it was observed to 

 be N. 20° E., and at Pubnico nearly N. and S. Near the town of 

 Yarmouth there are hornblende and chlorite slates, and inland, in the 

 direction of Carleton, clay slates appear to prevail. Veins of white 

 quartz abound in these rocks. On the east side of the Tusket River 

 quartz rock prevails, and forms a stony country. Toward Pubnico, 

 mica slate and micaceous quartz rock appear, and are traversed by 

 granitic veins, leading us to the massive granite of Shelburne county. 

 Granite is also said to occur inland at Kempt ; but I have not visited 

 this place. 



On entering Shelburne, we find granite at Wood's and Shag Har- 

 bours, and extending inland for some distance. At Barrington there 

 is still abundance of granite and mica slate, with strike N. 23° E. 

 At Port La Tour, the mica slate and gneiss abound in large prismatic 

 crystals of a greenish magnesian mineral, allied to steatite. These 

 crystals, which are perhaps pseudomorphous, project from the weathered 

 surface of the rock. At the town of Shelburne there is abundance of 

 a fine-grained granite of excellent quality, and toward the mouth of 

 the harbour gneiss occurs, with small crystals of garnet ; its strike is 

 S.W. Veins of coarse-grained granite penetrate these rocks, and in 

 some places these veins present the singular variety to which the 

 name graphic granite has been applied, from its resemblance to written 

 characters. In this variety of granite, quartz and felspar alone are 

 present, and the quartz in hardening has arranged itself in plates 

 between the felspar crystals, so that when the mass is polished, the 

 sections of these quartzose plates present the appearance of ancient 

 Samaritan on modern phonographic writing. In the graphic granite 

 of Shelburne, the characters are in gray quartz, and the ground is 

 white or flesh-coloured felspar. In surface gravel, near the town of 

 Shelburne, I found pebbles of the beautiful mineral rose-quartz, but 

 did not observe it in place. 



At Jordan and Sable Rivers, in the eastern part of this county, 

 gneiss and mica slate appear in many fine varieties, and contain 

 abundance of crystals of Staurotide ; and Schiller spar and talc some- 

 times enter into the composition of these rocks as well as mica. 



On entering Queeris County we find granite at Port Joli and Port 

 Mouton, and toward the town of Liverpool these give place to quartz 

 rock, which, with some beds of micaceous slate, here occupies a great 





