GESPEREAU VALLEY, NOVA SCOTIA HAYCOCK. 375 



the direct northward flow of the drainage from that ancient 

 land ; and this little indentation of the coast line was doubtless 

 the estuary of a small river. The absence of coarse conglomerates 

 from the basal sandstones, indicates quiet sheltered waters along 

 the shores. With the exception of ice-transported material, 

 the shore deposits of the Minas Basin average about the same in 

 coarseness as these Lower Carboniferous or Devonian deposits. 

 This would lead to the inference that the ancient Bay was but 

 little more extensive than the Minas Basin of to-day, and that 

 the shores were not exposed to more violent wave action than 

 the more exposed portions of the borders of the present Basin. 



This absence of conglomerates also indicates gentle slopes of 

 the land, but we can scarcely do more than speculate as to the 

 character of the interior. The lowest sandstones are evidently 

 made up of the more or less decomposed constituents of a granitic 

 rock. The present boundary of the granite country is to the 

 south, not nearer than from seven to ten miles, and because of 

 the lowering of the surface of the land by erosion in subsequent 

 geological times, this boundary must be nearer now than when 

 these beds were laid down. In what manner all this material 

 could have been transported from the inland areas whence it 

 evidently was derived, is a most perplexing problem. 



The land was clothed with a luxuriant vegetation, ns the 

 abundant plant remains testify, but the picture of the life that 

 inhabited it must be sketched by the palaeontologist. The 

 Geological Record is not one of living forms alone, but geo- 

 graphical and scenic features have a histor}" that forms a too- 

 often overlooked part of that record. This history of the 

 Oaspereau Valley is but a single instance in the evolution of the 

 topographic features of the Nova Scotia of to-day. Whether 

 the facts have been rightly arranged and interpreted, must be 

 left to the judgment of those who follow ; but the great age of 

 this valley, and its checkered history, the latest stages of which 

 have not been looked into, are reminders of the wealth of 

 material about us for study, and of the exceedingly slow and 

 labored process by which the landscape has come to be as it to-day. 



