100 GEOLOGICAL AREAS OF CANADA. 



stances. Its strata, as a rule, are much folded and disturbed, as well 

 as altered chemically. The Sillery formation follows in most places 

 the outcrop of the Lauzun beds, and the altered portions of its strata 

 cannot always be sharply separated from the latter. In its unaltered 

 state it occurs, in the form of red and green shales, micaceous sand- 

 stones, and dolomitic beds, at Sillery Cove and Cape Rouge, near 

 Quebec; and on the south shore, between the Chaudiere and the 

 vicinity of Point Levis, and still more extensively in the country 

 east of the Chaudiere. 



The "Gaspe-Limestone formation" is regarded as mainly equivalent 

 in position to the Lower Helderberg series of western localities. 

 Although composed chiefly of grey limestone strata, it is partly made 

 up of a lower (perhaps Middle Silurian) series of black shales and 

 slates ; and some green and red shales are interstratified with its 

 calcareou.s beds. The lower part of the formation occurs principally 

 in the Eastern Townships of Orford, Melbourne, Westbury, &c.) 

 where it contains workable beds of slate, and is seen in places to 

 overlie the Sillery formation unconformably ; whilst the higher or 

 more calcareous portion is chiefly developed in Gaspe. On the 

 extreme eastern coast, as at Barry Cape, the Perce Rock, and else- 

 where, the limestones present bold clifis and pinnacles of rock, worn 

 and hollowed by the action of the sea. 



The " Gaspe-Sandstone formation," as shown by its fossils, is of 

 Devonian age, representing most probably the Oriskany, Hamilton 

 (or Lambton), and Chemung formations of western districts. It 

 occurs in Dudswell, Burford, and other sections of the Eastern Town- 

 ships, in the form of light or dark-coloured limestones or dolomites 

 (rendered crystalline in places by metamorphism), which appear to 

 merge more or less into the underlying " Gaspe-Limestone " beds. In 

 Gaspe proper, where the formation occurs in its more typical aspect, 

 it consists essentially of interstratified sandstones, shales, and con- 

 o'lomerates, holding in places many fossilized plant-remains. A thin 

 seam of impure coal occurs also in these beds at Little Gaspe Cove ; 

 and petroleum springs ooze through the strata at Douglastown and 

 elsewhere. 



The " Bonaventure formation " represents the lower portion or base 

 of the coal measures, but is entirely destitute of coal. Its strata are 

 chiefly composed of conglomerates, with associated sandstones and 

 red and greenish shales, some of which hold carbonized plant-remains ; 



