GASPEREAU VALI.EY, NOVA SCOTIA HAYCOCK. 365 



Triassic age, is "only found along the base of the hills. Deeply 

 buried by heavy accumulations of boulder-clay it forms the first 

 low rise or step, but is not known to ascend the slopes of the 

 southern tableland. Its contact with the rocks that form these 

 slopes is not visible here, but the inclination of the beds is such 

 that their continuation would carry them up over, and thus indi- 

 cate that they rest upon, the next appearing beds to the south.* 



These older beds, dipping northeasterly at angles of from 12 

 to 20 degrees, first appear at or near the surface within a few 

 hundred yards of the above mentioned Triassic sandstone. They 

 are dark grey, drab, purplish and black shales, in thin layers, 

 containing abundant plant remains. These shales become more 

 sandy to the south, passing first into fine-grained sandstones 

 which separate in weathering into remarkably uniform thin 

 laminae. These in turn are underlaid by coarser and coarser 

 grey sandstones, with occasional interstratified beds of black 

 mud-rock and occasional layers of conglomerate, in more and 

 more variable uneven or lenticular strata, as the crest of the ridge 

 and the base of the formation are approached. This whole series 

 is inclined to the northeast at angles varying from 5 to 20 degrees. 

 If the strata were continued, this inclination would carry them 

 up over the slates which are the next appearing rocks to the 

 south. 



The contact of the sandstone and slate is concealed by surface 

 mateiial, but the above mentioned geographical and structural 

 relations point to the sandstones as the newer rocks. The occur- 

 rence of pebbles and partial!}' worn fragments of slate in the 

 coarse sandstone beds, and the unmetamorphosed condition of 

 the occasional black carbonaceous layers very near the contact 

 with the slate, are convincing proofs of the subsequent deposition 

 of the sandstone and shale series. 



This sandstone is largely made up of sub-angular, grey, 

 translucent, quartz grains. Muscovite is common, and the 

 presence of small ironstained cavities points to the former presence 



*At Avonport, this unconformable superposition is revealed by a fault which brings 

 up the base of these red beds to the surface of the beach. 



