102 



Transition Rocks of the Cataraqui. 



The drawing annexed is a slight sketch of this scene, which is ren- 

 dered still more memorable, from the curious discovery made in con- 

 sequence of the operations. carried on, in an extensive quarry. 



A remarkable regularity in the shape and appearance of some of 

 the thick beds of the Cataraqui formation, which are near the water 

 mark of Lake Ontario, had been observed for some time ; but it 

 remained for Mr. John Finch to discover and point out the singular 

 fact that several of these beds were regularly divided into prismatic 

 forms, by a species of huge crystallization, resembling that exhibited 

 by basalt, but always in a horizontal position. 



That gentleman, being at Kingston, and employed on a course of 

 mineralogical lectures, naturally employed his leisure time in exam- 

 ining the country, and during his walks in the immediate vicinity of 

 the town, was much surprised to find, in two or three places on the 

 banks of the lake, that the calcareous beds near the water mark, 

 were, to a great extent, regularly formed into almost interminable 

 horizontal columns of an hexangular or octagonal shape, not jointed 

 or connected by a cup and socket, as those of basalt often are, but 

 irregularly, disunited only by occasional rents, evidently the result of 

 the action of time, or of unequal coherency. 



It would take up too large a space to describe all the appearances 

 and localities of this new freak of nature at Kingston, the evidences 



