OF CENTRAL CANADA PART V. 343 



(as in other places) much disturbance and contortion in the strata of 

 the latter between the mouth of the Marsouin River and Cape Rosier 

 at the extremity of the Gaspe peninsula. 



The Island of Anticosti extends in a general north-west and south- 

 east direction, with a length of about 150 miles, and a breadth in its 

 broadest part, of about 35 miles, gradually tapering at the extremities. 

 The northern coast presents bold ranges of cliffs, from 200 to 400 feet 

 in height, cut through in places by deep water-courses. The interior 

 of the island is thickly wooded, but is destitute of lakes and impor- 

 tant streams. It appears to consist of a series of plateaux or broad 

 terraces, gradually descending to the south shore. The latter, 

 although showing in places high cliffs of drift clay, is mostly of a 

 low and swampy character, and this part of the island is especially 

 characterized by the presence of extensive beds of peat. 



The Mingan Coast consists of arenaceous limestones and dolomites 

 of the Calciferous formation, and similar strata on the islands are 

 succeeded by Chazy beds composed of reddish and pale-gray lime- 

 stones, with interstratined arenaceous shales. On the principal 

 island (Large Island) of the Mingan group, light-coloured lime- 

 stones, holding characteristic Lower Trenton or Black River fossils, 

 overlie the Chazy beds the whole dipping, at a slight angle, south- 

 wards or towards the Gulf. The next exposure (in the regular 

 sequence of Lower Silurian formations) occurs along the opposite 

 north coast of Anticosti, and consists of grayish and other coloured 

 limestones, with interstratined shales and conglomerates, having an 

 inland or southerly dip of very slight amount. These beds belong to 

 the upper part of the Hudson River formation, and it may thus be 

 legitimately inferred that the intervening area of the Gulf is occupied 

 uninterruptedly by other Hudson River beds, with Utica and Tren- 

 ton strata cropping out to the north successively from beneath them. 

 In some of these Hudson River strata, examples of the curious stem- 

 like corals (Bea ricea undata), resembling the petrified trunks of 

 large trees, occur in considerable abundance. The succeeding area of 

 the Island to the south, is occupied by argillaceous and other lime- 

 stones, the equivalents apparently of the Medina, Clinton, and 

 Niagara formations of the West ; but characteristic Niagara fossils 

 are associated in some of these strata with Lower Silurian types. 



The other rock-formations of Anticosti and the northern islands of 



