ILLUSTRATIONS OF DYNAMICAL GEOLOGY BAILEY. 181 



The difficulty referred to, as to the location of the Port 

 Mouton sand-hills, is enhanced when with these we compare the 

 similar hills of blown sand which form portions of the shore of 

 Barrington Bay. The accompanying Plates, VII and vui, will give 

 a good idea of these, as regards both the extent of the area they 

 cover, the height to which in places they have been heaped up 

 and the fact that they are still travelling inland, burying bushes 

 and even forests as they go. I am without any exact measure- 

 ments as to the area covered, but think that this cannot well be 

 less than fifteen or twenty acres, while the height of the hills, 

 which is greatest at the inner margin of the area, is probably 

 not less than forty feet. It is said that a portion of the area, 

 (which is on the lower part of Village-Dale,) was once occupied 

 by a French village. However this may be, it is certain that 

 the hills are gradually travelling inland, and that each year 

 adds appreciably to their height as well as to their distance 

 from the sea. In all these features they nearly resemble the 

 sand hills of Port Mouton, but in two other important respects 

 there is a noticeable difference. In the first place, while the 

 dunes of the harbor last named are upon its western side, those 

 of Barrington Bay are upon the eastern side of that indentation; 

 and, secondly, while in the former instance the rocks at hand 

 are granitic, and well adapted to yield the necessary material for 

 these accumulations, the sand-drifts of Barrington Bay rest on 

 beds of Cambrian slate and quartzite. It is true that there is 

 abundance of granite at the head and upon the west side of this 

 latter Bay, but this is several miles distant. 



It is therefore again difficult to see what have been and are 

 the special circumstances which have led to the production of 

 such large deposits of such material at this particular spot. It 

 is also difficult to see wherein either of these spots differs 

 materially, either as regards exposure to the winds, nature of the 

 rocks, or in other respects, from innumerable other localities along 

 the shore, in which no trace of such deposits is to be found. 

 Possibly further and closer study may remove the difficulties of 

 explanation which now exist. 

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