GASPEUEAU VALLEY, NOVA SCOTIA HAYCOCK. 307 



above the Gaspereau Valley is about 200 feet, and, like the similar 

 beds on the northern slope, it dips to the northeast or directly 

 into the hill, and seemingly must pass beneath the slate. That it 

 does not is proved by the presence of fragments of the slate and 

 vein quartz in the sandstone itself, and some other explanation 

 of this relation must be sought. 



Along the lower slopes to the south, and in the bottom of 

 the Gaspereau Valley, the underlying rock is concealed by sur- 

 face material ; but along its south side the brooks from the 

 southein tableland have plowed deep furrows at right angles to 

 the valley in the surface material and rock formations beneath, 

 and have revealed the whole structure from the top of the 

 terraces which flank the river to the level of the high land beyond. 

 The first rocks to appear from beneath the terraces in the 

 Angus brook are grey or brown sandy shales in rather thin 

 layers. Their surfaces are abundantly ripple-marked, the ridges 

 of the ripples running generally north 70 west. Worm trails 

 are common ; and the surfaces frequently bear the imprints of 

 stems of Lepidodendra. These beds dip to the north at an angle 

 of about 20 degrees, and the brooks flow directly across them 

 at right angles to the strike and in the direction of the 

 dip, so that in stepping from bed to bed as they successively 

 come out from beneath each other, one is passing to older and 

 older strata while ascending the brook and the slope. There is 

 a good deal of local variation in the direction of the strike and 

 in the amount of inclination from the horizontal. An average 

 strike, however, would be a little north of west ; an average 

 dip about 15 degrees in a general direction a little east of north. 



The beds vary in composition from sandy to argillaceous and 

 carbonaceous shales, and in coloring from grey or brown to black 

 according to the abundance of organic matter and the degree to 

 which they have been open to the passage of underground water. 

 Here, as in the series of strata lying on the north slope of the 

 Wolfville ridge, the finer sediments are succeeded by coarser and 

 coarser materials with occasional interstratifiod layers of black 

 mud-rock as we pass down into the series and up the slope of the 



