GASPEREAU VALLEY, NOVA SCOTIA HAYCOCK. 371 



An objection to this view is, that the bit of north-dipping 

 sandstone on the southern brow of the Wolfville ridge lies where 



O 



the south-dipping limb of the northern anticline should be 

 found ; and this explanation must also be rejected. 



Still a third explanation remains. The repeated outcrop of 

 the same set of beds can be accounted for by a theory that is not 

 in opposition to known facts and even has some special evidence 

 in its favor. If a fault, concealed by the heavy accummulations 

 of surface material, is supposed to extend east and west along 

 the north side of the valley, and the rocks on the north to have 

 moved upwards relatively to those on the south side of the fault, 

 as in Fig. 4, the same strata that dip northerly from the southern 

 side of the valley would be cut off, a mile or more to the north, 

 along with the formation on which they rest. Erosion would 

 act more effectively along the elevated surface, and the soft 

 overlying shales would be quickly removed down to the coarse 

 and more resistant sandstones, and these even worn through to 

 the underlying slates. 



On the south side of the fault, the relatively lower position 

 would be less favorable to removal and the softer shales would 

 remain to furnish evidence of the amount of material that had 

 been worn away to lay bare the sandstones and slates of the 

 Wolfville ridge. The northerly dips in the south-sloping surface 

 of this ridge are what we would expect on this theory. 



Some additional facts in support of this explanation exist. 

 A line of springs lies along the north side of the valley well up 

 on the slopes of the ridge, and quartz veins a footer more in 

 thickness, extend along in the same direction, very near the 

 line of springs. If these springs rise in the line of fracture 

 caused by the fault, as appears probable, their occurrence is 

 explicable. The water for these can scarcely be supplied from the 

 almost bare rock surface of the part of the ridge, or escarpment* 

 above, but its source must be rather in the more distant and higher 

 lands to the southwest. A somewhat long underground journey 

 for the water is thus required, and this is favorable to the removal 

 of silica from the rocks along the path and its deposition along 

 PROC. AND TRANS. N. S. INST. Sci., VOL. X. TRANS. Z. 



