118 GEOLOGICAL AREAS OF CANADA. 



garie River. It thus includes the greater portion of Eichmond 

 county, with the more western portion of the county of Cape Breton, 

 and the southern portions of Inverness and Victoria. The rocks 

 within this section of country belong chiefly to the Lower Carboni- 

 ferous series, but the area includes also some slight exposures of the 

 Middle or Productive series, and several tracts of considerable size 

 occupied by syenites and related rocks. The Lower Carboniferous 

 strata consist of various beds of conglomerate, sandstone, limestone, 

 and marl — the two latter associated in many places (as at Plaister 

 Cove, Port Hood, and Mabou, on the Gut of Canseauj at Caribou 

 Cove on the south coast; and at Baddeck and other points on the 

 Little Bras d'Or) with beds and occasional veins of gypsum and 

 anhydrite. These lower strata are succeeded here and there by small 

 patches of the Middle Carboniferous series, containing seams of coal. 

 These occur at Caribou Cove and on Little River (where the beds 

 are much tilted and disturbed), and also on the Inhabitants River, 

 in the south ; and near Port Hood and Mabou in the north-west. 

 The coal bed at Caribou Cove, as described by Dr. Dawson, is 11 feet 

 8 inches in thickness, but of inferior quality ; and it sho^vs an over- 

 turn dip with the original underclay now forming its roof. At Port 

 Hood several seams have been recognized, but these, apparently, are 

 of no great thickness. The strata at this latter locality contain 

 numerous stigmaria-roots in undisturbed position, together with other 

 characteristic coal j^lants. In addition to these Carboniferous strata, 

 this western portion of Cape Breton, as indicated above, includes 

 some detached syenitic areas of considerable extent. The largest 

 appears to range from the River St. Denys to within a short distance 

 of St. George's Bay. "Others of similar chai-acter — outliers of the 

 great syenitic area of the northern peninsula of Cape Breton — lie in 

 the immediate vicinity of Ainslie Lake, a large body of fresh water, 

 with the River Maigarie for its outlet, in Inverness. 



11. The Eastern, or Sydney Area of Gape Breton. — This area, as a 

 coal'bearing district, rivals in importance the Pictou area of ISTova 

 Scotia proper. It occupies the country around Sydney Harboiir, and 

 extends northward across the Little Bras d'Or and Boulardrie Island, 

 and eastward and southward to Mire Bay and the Mire River. Its 

 strata belong essentially to the Middle or Productive Carboniferous 

 series, and consist of the usual sandstones, conglomerates, and shales, 

 with seams of bituminous coal and fire-clay, and occasional bands of 



