Transition Rocks of the Caiaraqui. 101 



The sienite now mounts upwards into a series of undulating sum- 

 mits, until it attains to its greatest elevation, where its bold top, of a 

 bright red color, bai:es an extensive bosom of smoothed rocks to 

 the sun. Towards the land side, this surface is easy of access, and 

 from the quartzose particles of the rock having resisted the storms 

 of ages to a greater degree than the feldspar, it is at all times safe to 

 walk over, as it is very smooth only in the long parallel channels run- 

 ning N. w. and s. e. by which it is so peculiarly marked. On this sur- 

 face, the eye soon distinguishes a number of holes or indentations 

 which appear as though they had been at one tiijie the receptacles of 

 crystals of some size, and seem not unlike those cells in which, in the 

 sandstone, organic remains formerly reposed. The sienite is, more- 

 over, split by the sun and frosts into extensive fissures, and where 

 the rocks occur next to the lake, many of them have toppled down, 

 leaving below them bold walls and a steep slope of debris and 

 soil. These mixed with tl'ees of the fir tribe, and of the ordi- 

 nary deciduous indigense, form the side, a gloomy dell which run- 

 ning to the north east, bounds the sienite rock in this quarter, and 

 also terminates the cove. 



From the first rivulet, as above mentioned, it is somewhat difficult, 

 excepting where there is ice, to proceed along the shore, towards 

 this spot, as the bank is in general steep, and the beach is overspread 

 with huge fragments of the sienite and with boulders ; the occa- 

 sional jutting out of the limestone may, however, be observed and for 

 a quarter of a mile, we obtain, very frequently, the most conclusive 

 evidence that the two rocks are in contact and form a junction. 



Looking up the dell which opens from the cove, a curious scene 

 again presents itself; to the left hand the sienite towers upward, its 

 steep slope being covered, occasionally, by soil thickly overgrown with 

 trees, and presents vast blocks and ranges of the disrupted rock, with 

 occasional glimpses of the limestone. 



On the right is a quarry, opened in some very thick and fine beds 

 of the limestone, the two rocks forming the two sides of a narrow 

 dell, and here the limestone, having been well denuded by the miners, 

 its ancient bassets show themselves completely, their fissured and 

 aged walls being thickly covered with a complete rough casting of 

 minute siliceous fragments which appear, in many instances, scarcely 

 to have penetrated the stone, here of a lighter color than usual, and 

 extremely hard and splintery, and to which, wherever they only in- 

 crust it, they so inflexibly adhere, as not to be easily separated. 



