Geology, S^c. of Malbay, L. C. 217 



The face of the precipice is nearly perpendicular ; the 

 upper parts overhanging a little ; and the layers undulating, 

 but never departing widely from the general horizontality 

 of the rock. 



The cliff is of a mixed character. Near the east end a 

 fissured mass of porphyritic granite twelve feet high, and as 

 many broad, rises from the loose sand of the beach, and 

 passes under the precipice, into the hill. Near it, but not 

 in contact, a coarse quartz rock does the same ; but not at- 

 taining more than four or five feet above the level of the 

 water ; and is surrounded by broken strata of the green 

 conglomerate lately spoken of, which covers the beach 

 along the whole front of the precipice. 



The chff itself is composed of calcareous conglomerate, 

 interleaved with a brown limestone, as in that of the west 

 angle of the bay : — the only difference which I observed is, 

 the predominance of the conglomerate in the lower parts, 

 and of the limestone in the upper ; which latter is brown, 

 and remarkably full of shells. I observed an orthocerite 

 with a pointed termination ; but in other respects similar 

 to those previously noticed : I do not recollect whether it 

 occurred in the conglomerate or in the brown limestone, 

 rocks which perhaps differ only in the presence or absence 

 of quartz nodules. 



The conglomerate is occasionally interspersed with small 

 rounded flakes of black clayey matter, as in the grey wacke 

 of Ange Gardien, and of Cap Rouge, near Quebec. 



The precipice is discontinued suddenly, and is replaced 

 to the east by a slope of gneisic ruins. On the beach a 

 whitish laminated gneiss prevails at various angles of incli- 

 nation, but always dipping north north-west under the 

 hills. The mica of the gneiss, as we proceed east, very 

 gradually increases, and hornblende and garnets in crystals 

 become numerous. At length the rock is changed into a 

 coarse black mica slate. The garnets now for several hun- 

 dred yards towards Cape Eagle are so abundant as to form 

 the greater part of the rock. They are either obscurely 

 crystallized or massive ; — instances of either form eight 

 inches in diameter being common. Their texture is much 

 loosened by rents ; and many have fallen from their nests : 

 It is difficult to procure large specimens from their frangi- 

 bility, and from the toughness of the rock in which they are 

 imbedded. 



