■2,5^ Geology and Mineralogy of the 



ence or reading avails me, is unexampled. I refer to a rock 

 which has induced the Canadian voyagers to give to the 

 tracts around the Missassaga river the characteristic appel- 

 lation of " Le Serpent." 



The extent of this rock in any direction I have not as- 

 certained. I first observed it on the northern mainland, 

 fifteen* miles above the river Missassaga, ar^d afterwards, 

 for many miles towards the river Thessalon, wiien morasses 

 and luxuriant forests conceal all traces of stratification, until 

 we reach the neighborhood of the greenstone, about to be 

 described.f 



It is an intermixture, in the large, of a light coloured 

 greenstone, and a granitous compound of minute texture, 

 (consisting of white quartz and red feldspar, the latter being 

 m excess.) These substances mutually penetrate and tra- 

 verse each other in nearly equal quantities^ so that either 

 may be considered matrix or vein at pleasure ; and each is 

 indicated externally by knotty, straight, waved, or stellular 

 configurations of its own proper color, which is lively and 

 strongly contracted. (See plate, fig. \.) 



The direction of this " Serpent" rock is north west, with 

 a south west dip at an angle of 70°. Accompanying it, in 

 the lake, a few granite mounds rise above the water, hold- 

 ing a northerly course, an example of the low level of the 

 primitive rocks in America. 



We have here an instance of a third rock being formed 

 from the intimate union of two others, pre-existing and co- 

 temporaneous, which have met in the same state of fluidity, 

 and have been enabled by violent agitation or strong cur- 

 rents, to insinuate themselves into each other's structure in a 

 very equable manner. 



Its geological relations and its origin, place it among the 

 transition class of rocks. 



Easterly from this locality for twenty miles or more, por- 

 phyritic granites, gneiss and trap, alternate along shore in 

 groups forming islets, naked rocks and reefs, the granfte and 



* I was wiii'l-bound for two days there. 



i Previous to this, a league or so, a few vertical strata shew themselves 

 among the marshes, which circumstance did not permit me to examine ; 

 but from theii' brown color, close texture, &c. I conjecture them to be a ^ 

 trap; particularly as fragments of thr.t rock of a brown color are commoa 

 rtn the adip.cpnt island^. 



