Transition Rocks of the Cataraqui. 97 



Art. XI.^Ow the Transition Rocks of the Cataraqui ; by Capt. 



R. H. BONNYCASTLE, R. En. 

 (Continued from Vol. XX, p. 74.) 



This is the second instance wherein a new mineral has been dis- 

 covered on our interesting tour over so limited a locality, and we 

 therefore pursue our journey onward with redoubled zeal. 



Coasting the border of the lake, which is now entering upon a 

 new character and rapidly changing its great expanse of water into 

 the thousand intricate channels of the mighty St. Lawrence, we walk, 

 for about a quarter of a mile, or perhaps somewhat less, to the east- 

 ward, over a shore heaped with large boulders, and protected by 

 these from the further destruction of the limestone layers, which 

 basset out in wall-like ledges overhead, from ten to twenty feet in 

 height, occasionally covered and hid by debris and vegetable soil, in 

 which the juniper, the silver birch, and other stunted plants, have a 

 precarious existence, yielding their tender limbs to the rough spray 

 and lashings of the stormy lake. 



The boulders are so thickly strown over this shore, that it is diffi- 

 cult to creep along it, even in calm seasons, and when the lake is 

 high, or much vexed, almost impracticable. Suddenly, however, the 

 bank shelves off in green sward, and a ravine or dell opens, through 

 which meanders a streamlet, whose source is at a short distance, in 

 the limestone rocks above ; its clear and cold waters trickling from 

 a mere cleft, and then bounding away to the lake below. This is 

 one of the many remarkable springs, peculiar to the limestone of the 

 Cataraqui, yielding, in the hottest weather, a chilly cold water, which 

 tastes as though it had been iced. After quitting the soft stone quar- 

 ry, I passed by another, immediately under the great well, which 

 actually flows out of a mere chink, not an inch above the ordinary 

 level of the lake, to receive whose wholesome beverage, so different 

 from that of the sapid Ontario, I have hollowed out. a little votive 

 basin. Clear it of the weedy slime which so rapidly covers it, ye 

 future travellers, and consecrate its virtues to geology ! 



But to return to the valley. This valley is worthy of a prolonged 

 visit. It is small, and scarcely deserves the name given to it ; but it 

 is highly interesting, as forming a demarcation between the transition 

 limestone and the first great visible elevation of the sienite of the 

 Cataraqui. The stream issues forth, from the calcareous beds, and 



Vol. XXIV.—No. 1. 13 



