On the Transition Rocks of the Caiaraqui. 87 



breaks forth, assuming the character of a mural precipice and afford- 

 ing a narrow passage for the waters of the Cataraqui ; but it retains 

 this character only for a short distance, when it once more changes 

 into the rounded, and wave like pale flesh colored syenite of Hamil- 

 ton cove, remarkable for a coating of schorlaceous threads, and for 

 the metallic crust investing the interior surfaces of those portions 

 which by the action of the weather, have fallen from the mass, in cubic 

 blocks. Adularia, of a light cloudy blue, is also observed in this sye- 

 nite, which is extremely hard to work, takes scarcely any polish, and 

 has a slightly unctuous feel. It contains but little hornblende, and 

 less talc, and is composed almost wholly of felspar, in small grains, 

 with white and bluish quartz, the felspar greatly predominating. 



One singular vestige of the ancient flood still marks this rock, and 

 indeed all those of the Cataraqui. Channels, deeply worn and per- 

 fectly smooth, pervade its surface, in lines running north east and 

 south west, which, indeed is the general tendency of the ridges them- 

 selves.* 



This syenite sinks immediately beyond Kingston Mills and is cov- 

 ered by the alluvions of the Cataraqui. Where it again rises I do not 

 know, as the adjacent country to the northward is interminable forest, 

 but from the statements of several scientific officers, who have recent- 

 ly explored the interior in much higher latitudes, there is every rea- 

 son to beheve, that it connects itself with the height of land by which 

 the waters of the Ottawa or Grand River are divided from those 

 which, flowing from the Rocky Mountains, pervade the territory of 

 Hudson's Bay. 



Primitive granite, or the true granite of the oldest rocks, does not, 

 perhaps, exist in the neighborhood of Lake Ontario ;f whilst we 

 know, from the statements of the travellers above mentioned, that it 

 is equally deficient as far north as Lake Temiscaming, or nearly to the 

 height of land, and Franklin's journey shews that it is by no means 

 common, even until we almost reach the shores of the Arctic Ocean. 



It will, therefore, by many persons, be deemed very improper to 

 style the aggregate we are about to treat of, by the designation gran- 



* 1 observe that a writer in the last number of the Journal states, that similar 

 appearances, on the opposite shores of Lake Ontario, are numerous. 



f " Dans le voisinage d'un disti ict connii sous le nom des Milles Isles, on trouve 

 una chaine des granites. Tous ces isles semblent etre coinpjsees d'un granit con- 

 geatre, bien crystallize dout le feldspath est I'ingredient le plus cont^iderable." — 

 Gidlltmard. 



