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GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF NORTHEAST COAST 93 
in Labrador. For at least fifty miles along the coast from 
Ford Harbour northward, and for many miles inland, the 
older formations of the range were in some manner displaced 
by a huge body of molten rock. This enormous mass 
erystallized into a solid rock precisely analogous to common 
granite in having solidified under a cover of older, over- 
lying schists or strata. The latter have since been worn 
away, and to-day the once deeply buried “intrusive” body 
is visible in mountain stubs covering hundreds of square 
miles. The rock is called ““gabbro”; in composition it is 
often similar to basalt, the commonest of lavas, 7.e.such rocks 
as have been erupted at the earth’s surface from volcanic 
vents. Like basalt, the gabbro has a specially dark colour, 
that which dominates the island-cliffs and mainland-moun- 
tains of the region about Nain. These highlands are bare 
of both soil and vegetation, and the black slopes impress 
the eye with a sense of sombre, almost terrible, majesty 
even greater than is given by their mere altitude and savage 
sculpturing. Aulatsivik Island (“The Ruler’’) and Paul’s 
Island, lying in a whole archipelago of smaller, rounded, 
hummocky islands or ragged skerries, offer numerous land- 
ing-places where the formation can be studied. 
As in other occurrences within the Canadian Archean, 
the gabbro is chiefly made up of a wonderfully beautiful 
mineral, a feldspar, first recognized as a distinct species 
during the examination of hand-specimens brought many 
years ago to Europe from Paul’s Island. The species was 
called “labradorite” in its first description, and the name 
is still employed to signify one of the main constituents 
of the earth’s crust. It is predominant not only in gabbro 
and gabbro-like rocks, but as well in the bulk of the world’s 
