DISTRICT OF CAPE BKETON COUNTY. 405 



district, ami the results of the important explorations for coal recently- 

 carried on, more especially in its eastern part. 



The island of Boulardarie, the whole of which I include in this dis- 

 trict, though politically a part of it belongs to Victoria county, consists 

 in its western part of the Lower Carboniferous limestone, and overlying 

 hard sandstones, having apparently an undulating arrangement, as 

 represented by Mr Brown in his section of the island. The limestone, 

 as I have observed it on the north side of Boulardarie, is hard and 

 compact, and contains the Productus semireticulatus. At the eastern 

 end of the island, the limestone and millstone- grit dip to the N.E. and 

 underlie the Coal measures which a})pear near Point Aconi. The Coal 

 measures, extending from Point Aconi to the outcrop of the millstone- 

 grit, are stated by Mr Brown at 5400 feet in vertical thickness. 



Crossing tiic Little Bras d'Or, the Coal measures continue with 

 north-easterly dip across the peninsula separating this strait from 

 Sydney Harbour, and thence with various faults and disturbances to 

 Mire Bay. As the general dip is seaward, Mr Brown remarks, " this 

 great area of Coal measures Is probably the segment only of an 

 immense basin, extending toward the coast of Newfoundland ; a 

 supposition which Is confirmed by the existence of Coal measures at 

 Neil's Harbour, 30 miles north of Cape Dauphin." Inland of this 

 broad band of Coal measures, the whole country northward of a line 

 drawn west from Mire Bay to the east arm of the Bras d'Or Lake, 

 is occupied by the older members of the series, with the exception 

 of a tract of syenltic, porphyritic, and altered rocks, which appears 

 at and near George's River on the south-east side of Little Bras 

 d'Or. These igneous rocks have altered the Lower Carboniferous 

 limestone, as well as perhaps some underlying beds of the same system, 

 showing that igneous action had not terminated in these ancient meta- 

 morphic districts at the commencement of the Carboniferous period ; 

 and this appears to have been the case along the boundary of the 

 metamorphic and igneous rocks in many parts of Cape Breton. 



This extensive Carboniferous district is connected with that of Rich- 

 mond county on the south, by a very narrow stripe of limestone, red 

 conglomerate, and sandstone, skirting the base of tlie hills of porphyry, 

 syenite, and slate, rising steeply from the side of the Bras d'Or Lake, 

 which here is a broad and beautiful inland sea, presenting fine scenery 

 in almost every direction. The limestone and conglomerate may be 

 seen In several places to rest on the edges of the older slates, and in 

 some places, especially at Irish Cove, the former rock is filled with 

 well-preserved fossil shells, including immense quantities of the Conu- 

 laria, which in most other localities is rather rare ; as well as Produc- 



