Geology, ^c. of Malbay, L. C. 207 



The Middle Hill, from six to eight hundred feet high, is 

 a projecting portion of that on the west, just described, 

 with which it is connected in front by almost perpendicu- 

 lar steeps of sand, clay, and gravel, but grassy, and inter- 

 sected with deep ravines, filled with coppice, through one 

 of which the Ruisseau de Maj'ou descends towards the 

 Bay, turning several mills in its course. 



As in the former case, the greater part of this hill is bu- 

 ried in alluvion. The upper third is covered with wood, 

 while the imperfect scalar platforms below are apportioned 

 into farms, and furnish sites for dwellings, especially the 

 large and hospitable Seigniorial house of Mrs. Nairne. The 

 eastern face of the hill breaks off almost percipitously to 

 form the defile or river-pass before mentioned, and runs 

 west for six miles as one of the sides of the valley of St. 

 Etienne. 



The eastern arm of Malbay is rather shorter than the 

 other, and passes almost insensibly into the general course 

 of the St. Lawrence. It rises along the shore in a waving 

 line from the river-pass, and forming several lofty bluflTs, 

 with abraded faces it attains the height of eight hundred 

 feet in a broad summit, mingling to the eastward with the 

 high and rocky country about Cape Eagle. A precipice 

 two hundred feet high, lines the shore for five hundred 

 yards, just at the outside of the Bay, succeeded to the 

 east, by shattered cliffs, slopes of debris, or smooth mounds 

 within the influence of the tides. 



The whole space included by these three hills is over- 

 flowed only at high water, which then washes the naked 

 banks on the east, passes, (if I recollect aright) a short dis- 

 tance within the breach, and wanders among the marshy 

 indentations of the west side in shallow and winding chan- 

 nels. At ebb, the Malbay River flows sluggishly through 

 the moist sands to join the St. Lawrence at the skirts of 

 the Bay. 



Thevalley of St. Etienne, entered b}' the defile of its river, 

 ascends northwardly for six miles, and is a straight rugged, 

 and narrow stripe of low land, occupied principally by the 

 ever changing bed of its stream. It is bounded on the west by 

 the Middle Hill ; and on the east by the uplands which as- 

 cend swiftly into neighbouring mountains, greatly inter- 

 sected by broken ridges of alluvion, and furrowed by water- 



