NOTES ON GEOLOGY AND BOTANY OF DIGBY NECK BAILEY. 73 



The traps, which form by far the largest and most conspic- 

 uous element in the structure of Digby Neck, have been described 

 as varied, but the diversity which is seen is due rather to mere 

 variations of colour and texture than to any essential difference 

 of composition. And these variations seem to recur without any 

 definite order, the colour even within a few yards often shading 

 off from grey, the prevailing tint, to green or purplish, while 

 both in the coastal cliffs and in the interior compact or columnar 

 trap is associated very irregularly with beds which are scori- 

 aceous or amygdaloidal. A good opportunity for the study of 

 these rocks is to be had at Gulliver's Cove, to the north of the 

 sandstone section described above, here forming cliffs in some 

 places 100 feet high. They exhibit layers dipping at a slight 

 angle towards the Bay of Fundy, and are intersected by vertical 

 veins from mere streaks to 4 or 5 inches in width. These 

 consist of various silicious minerals, while those occupying the 

 horizontal fissures appear to be chiefly zeolitic. The vertical 

 veins have a strike about NNE. (magnetic). 



Other good exhibitions, especially of the columnar structure, 

 may be seen about Digby Light and Broad Cove ; bnt none are 

 so remarkable as those afforded by the depressions of Sandy 

 Cove and the Petite Passage. This latter truly wonderful gap, 

 of which the northern entrance is shown in Plate VI, through 

 which flows alternately a tidal current nearly 100 feet deep, 

 and with a velocity at times of not less than 8 knots, is upon 

 its western side, above the little fishing village of Tiverton, 

 bordered and overlooked by beetling cliffs, of which the indivi- 

 dual columns are most complete, and so carved by the sea as to 

 exhibit in places all the aspects of human architecture. The 

 boldness of the scenery is here further enhanced by the occur- 

 rence of numerous large blocks of trap, often 20 or 30 feet in 

 diameter, and of grotesque shapes, which are perched, sentinel- 

 like, upon the very edge of the bluffs, more than ]00 feet 

 above the water. These, if not " boulders of decomposition," 

 must have been derived from the trappean ridges which, though 

 now invisible through submergence, are known to lie along the 

 Bay of Fundy trough, outside of but parallel to the present coast. 



