On the Transition Rocks of the Cataraqui. 103 



liant plattes of micaceous iron. The structure is compact, the frac- 

 ture splintery and uneven, and the streak white. From the masses 

 lying about, it appears to be every v^here in contact with the lime- 

 stone,* as some of its sides are quite flattened, and retain a little 

 greenish grey lime in their unevennesses. 



It is probably one example, of the great struggle between amphi- 

 bole and felspar in the transition series of granitic aggregates, and 

 may perhaps, as we have already said, be classed under a new spe- 

 cies of greenstone ; its highly calcareous quality being a very singular 

 feature. This rock after running to the north-east a few hundred 

 yards, bends by a gentle curve to the north-west, and is lost again in 

 the Bay. 



On the sloping surface of the hill where this rock is now observed, 

 are many boulders, but none of large size, and there are also some 

 flat tables of limestone, very thin and of a dark grey color, with a 

 glimmering lustre when broken. These are seldom more than a 

 few feet in length, and I have hitherto found them invariably with 

 soil under them ; I cannot say whether they are in situ, or otherwise. 

 Their upper face is quite white and flat, excepting where whelks and 

 knobs of quartz, felspar and granite jut beyond it. Of these it is so 

 full as to be a perfect breccia ; and as these masses generally pene- 

 trate through the tables and appear, as it were, fused into them, the 

 lower surface, where the weather has not eaten away the limestone, 

 would, if polished, present a variegated face of all these minerals im- 

 bedded in and intermixed with the limestone, as they appear to be ac- 

 tually interlaced with it. On the upper surface where these hard sub- 

 stances uniformly project, are seen numerous vestiges of that ortho- 

 ceratite newly named haronia, with others much weathered, as, of 

 course, is the limestone itself. Not far from these tablets, which are 

 disappearing very fast, and will soon be gone altogether, the lime- 

 stone, wherever it appears above ground, has its upper face curiously 

 punched with indentures resembling crow's feetf of minute size, and 

 entirely covering the exposed surface. If as I strongly suspect, 

 these singular tablets, the memorials of a former age, are in situ, 

 we have here the surprizing fact, that animal remains occupy tlie 

 places where the feldspathose and hornblendic families of rocks 

 hold almost despotic sway ; for, in many instances in the neighborhood, 



* Which runs into it in the manner hereafter described in the granite. 

 1 1 do not at present, recollect the name of the fossil whose body formed these cav- 

 ities. 



