116 GEOLOGICAL AREAS OF CANADA. 



resembling in character the Albertite of New Brunswick, and the 

 Torbanite of Scotland. This substance has been named " Stellarite," 

 by Professor How, from its property of emitting numerous sparks 

 during combustion. It varies in the thickness of its bed, from five 

 or six inches to about a couple of feet. Immediately beneath it there 

 is another layer of a bituminous, or so-called " oil," shale, differing 

 principally from the stellarite layer by its more shaly structure, and 

 by the presence of a comparatively large amount of ash. The stella- 

 rite yields on an average about 120 gallons of crude oil per ton, and 

 the oil shale about 60 gallons. In a band of impure ironstone, form- 

 ing part of the Albion main seam, the skull and several teeth of a 

 lai^ge Labyrinthodont — the Bap'ietes 2^i<^niceps of Owen, were dis- 

 covered some years ago by Dr. Dawson. 



6. The Egerton, Arisaig, and Porctipine Mountains Area. — This 

 area might be regarded as an eastern extension of the Cobequid 

 Mountains, although sepai-ated from the latter by a narrow strip of 

 Cai bonifei'ous country connecting the Truro and Pictou areas. Like 

 the Cobequid Mountain area, it consists of high rocky land, made up 

 of centrah ranges of syenitic rocks with altered Silurian (and De- 

 vonian"?) strata, in the foi'm of highly-tilted slates and quartzites, 

 upon their flanks. It extends in a general north-easterly direction 

 from near the head-waters of the Shubenacadie to within a few miles 

 of Antigonish Harbour, where it subdivides into two branches, one 

 of which terminates in the Arisaig Hills and in Cape St. George, and 

 the other in the Porcupine Mountains on the Gut of Canseau. Some 

 of the slates of this area, as those of Arisaig and other localities, con- 

 tain Middle Silurian [%) fossils. The Antigonish Hills and Cape St, 

 George in the north-east, and Cape Poi'cupine on the Gut of Canseau 

 are com^posed, at least in their central portions, of vast masses of 

 syenite and greenstone (probably of Pre-Silurian age) flanked by dark 

 slates in highly- tilted and more or less contorted beds. 



7. The Antigonish Area. — This extends over the greater portion of 

 Sydney County, in Nova Scotia proper. It lies chiefly around Anti- 

 gonish Harbour and the south shore of St. George's Bay, and thus 

 includes the valleys of West River, South River, Pomket River, 

 Black River, the Tracadie River, &c., and intervening breadths of 

 country — the syenitic and altered rocks of Arisaig and Cape Porcu- 

 pine bounding it, respectively, on the west and south. It is occupied, 

 essentially by strata of the Lower Carboniferous series, consisting of 



