94 



ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



i^uelu'c (Iroup torKlitions of cold wutrr Jind imuldy de|)<);?its ovcrs]>i'oad 

 the whole intorior of the contiiieiit. thus ltk'iidin;f the oceanic and plateau 

 oonditioiiH for a time, and forming the natural close of the Quebec 

 (Jroup. because temporarily obliteratiii<; the geographical distinction on 

 uhich it is based. 



III. — Little Mktis Bay. 



The author of this paper has had occasion for many years to sjiend 

 i\ portion of the sumpier at one or other of the health-resorts on tie 

 Lower St. Lawrence, and has latterly ]»referred Little .Metis, as one of the 

 most |)leasant in its atmosphere and surroundings. He has there natur- 

 ally endeavoured to familiariice himself with the rocks and fossils acces- 

 sible in walks or short drives and boating excursions, and to devote some 

 time and labour to any locality which seemed unusuall}' jiromising. 



At Little Metis, and indeed along the whole coast between the city of 

 Quebec and Cape Rosier, a stretch of about 350 miles, the shore on the 

 whole follows the strike of the great mass of sandstones, shales and 

 conglomerates of the Quebec Group and which are everywhere thrown 

 into sharp anticlinal and s^-nclinal folds, and often repeated by longi- 

 tudinal faults, while they are also much disturbed by transverse faidts 

 and flexures. 



These older rocks are covered in places with the sands and clays of 

 the Pleistocene period, locally containing marine shells, and accompanied 

 with vast numbers of gneiss boulders from the Laurentian Mountains of 

 the north shore, here about forty miles distant, and with occasional, but 

 often very large, blocks of Silurian limestone from the hills to the south- 

 ward. Though masked on the lower grounds by these superficial dejxtsits. 

 the older rocks appear everywhere in the hilh- ridges and in the coast 

 cliffs and reefs. 



Little Metis Bay faces the northeast, and its outer boundar}' consists 

 of a strong gray sandstone forming the Lighthouse Point and extending 

 to the eastward in a long and dangerous reef, which it is hoped may. at 

 some future period, form the basis of a harbour of refuge for shi|)ping. 

 Immediately to the southwest of the point, the shore recedes rapi Ih" (see 

 map"), the sea having cut back along the outcro])s of dark shaly bands 

 which overlie the standstone, the whole di])])ing to the southward. These 

 occupy the northern division of the bay, about half a mile in width. 

 South of this a second reef of sandstone divides the bay, rising into a high 

 bluff, known as Mount Misery. This is divided hyy a shallow cove, and at 

 its southern extremity there projects i low |)oint of sandstone and con- 

 glomei'ate, which seem to extend eastward on a little outlying island 

 and a submerged bank, on which the sea breaks at very low tides, anil 

 which connects it with another and highe • islet about two miles distant, 

 called the Boule Rock. This consists of sandstone and conglomerate 



