VIII. SOME NOVA SCOTIAN ILLUSTRATIONS OF DYNAMICAL 

 GEOLOGY. BY PROF. L. W. BAILEY, PH. D., LL. D., 



University of Neiv Brunswick. 



(Read 9th March, 1896.) 



The following notes "and accompanying photogravure plates 

 are designed to present to students of the geology of Nova 

 Scotia a few phenomena and results which seem to the writer 

 sufficiently remarkable to deserve some special notice. The 

 notes and pictures were all taken in connection with the work 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada, and are reproduced here 

 by the kind permission of the Director. 



I. SAND HILLS OR DUNES OF THE SOUTHERN COAST. 



At several points along the shores of Queen's and Shelburne 

 Counties the attention of the traveller is attracted, even in mid- 

 summer, by what appear, in the distance, to be great drifts of 

 snow. Especially is this the case in driving along the post-road 

 at the head of Port Mouton Harbor, whence, though at a 

 distance of a mile or more, such drifts, in reality of blown sand, 

 are readily seen, forming indeed a conspicuous feature of the 

 landscape. They here occur upon the west side of the indenta- 

 tion named, stretching along the latter, though somewhat 

 interruptedly, for nearly a mile, and attaining in places a height 

 of thirty or forty feet. They conceal for the most part from 

 view the underlying rocks, but these, as seen in several islands 

 near by, are undoubtedly granitic, and such as, by their decom- 

 position, might readily afford the pure white siliceous sand of 

 which the dunes consist. This sand is almost wholly incoherent, 

 and readily blown to and fro by the winds, while, near the 

 water's edge, quicksands occasionally become a source of danger 

 to the incautious traveller ; but why so great an accumulation of 

 such material should take place at this particular spot is not 

 directly obvious. 



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