172 NOTES ON THE SUPERFICIAL GEOLOGY OF 



The southern part of the county is elevated, and is mainly 

 covered with forests interspersed with lakes. Vast masses of 

 granite form the outcrop. 



GEOLOGICAL HORIZONS. 



The northern part of the county, including the trap ridge and 

 the valley sandstone, is without doubt Triassic, as it conforms to 

 the triassic formations in other parts of the continent. This 

 was a period when the weakened crust was unable to withstand 

 the upward pressure of the molten rock and it burst through 

 making long ridges or dykes. The original amount of this 

 material must have been enormous, as it can now be found as 

 drift extending south over the province to the Atlantic ocean. 

 The Cornwallis sandstone, like other red rocks, contains no 

 fossils, but its age can be inferred as above from its relation to 

 the trap. 



The rock of the South Mountain is a hard shale, for the most 

 part often carrying veins of quartz. Quartzite also occurs in 

 large masses in the vicinity of White Rock and stretches across 

 the Gaspereau, making rapids in that river. In Webster Brook, 

 two miles south of Kentville, in fawn-colored slates. Dictyonerna 

 Websteri is found, probably Cambrian, and on Canaan Mountain, 

 one mile further south, Silurian encrinites may be obtained. 

 The ridge south of Wolfville contains no fossils, and the moun- 

 tain still further south is also barren, but a little to the east- 

 ward the brooks running into the Gaspereau show in their beds 

 abundance of plants, lepidodendrids, sigillarids and catamites. 

 These fossilliferous rocks continue to the extreme east of the 

 county, Horton Bluff, and are probably sub-carboniferous, though 

 some of the western series may be Devonian. In the eastern 

 part of the town of Wolfville, running south from the dyked 

 marsh to the top of the ridge and reappearing on the south of 

 the Gaspereau River, is a deposit of varying width known locally 

 as " Wickwire Stone." It is a coarse friable sandstone or fine 

 conglomerate, the sharp grains of quartz being held together by 

 a red cement of ferric oxide. It is largely quarried, being the 

 principal material used for the foundations of buildings in this 



