Geology, fyc. ofMalhay, L. C. 219 



gives a striking instance of it in the secondary rocks of Eng- 

 land. 



The transverse and more common mode of slow transi- 

 tion is present every where. 



The sudden alternation of entirely dissimilar strata, as of 

 gneiss and limestone, is frequent. It is strikingly exempli- 

 fied in the channelled fissure of some extent, which a moun- 

 tain stream has worn in the face of a precipice at the Bay 

 of St. Paul, thirty miles west from Malbay. In the walls 

 of this fissure or gulley, conformable layers of these substan- 

 ces alternate several times in the space of eighty yards. 

 They incline to the west south-west at an angle of 70°. 

 The limestone has occasional seams of white crystalline 

 marble, beautifully clouded with green, and containing dis- 

 seminated galena. These rocks are unchanged at their 

 well defined point of contact. 



The frequent alternations of the gneiss, quartz, hmestone, 

 &c. of Malbay, shews them to be of the same age ; it is re- 

 markable however that the limestone of the highlands and 

 the dark conchiferous species of the beach are quite simi- 

 lar in composition, although of very different dates, a fact 

 which involves nothing absurd or even improbable, as al- 

 most every rock in the geological catalogue recurs at inter- 

 vals, and with the same characters. 



The limestone appears to occupy the flanks of the hills. 

 I never saw it higher on the north shore, than 800 or 1,000 

 feet above the sea. The summit of the mountains is always 

 primary :— that of Cape Torment is of the finest graphic 

 granite. 



While these strata affect more or less a south-west direc- 

 tion, they do not enwrap or abut upon the mountains, but 

 dip towards them,— a very extraordinary disposition, of which 

 I know but four instances. It was noticed by Saussure on 

 the Grimsel and in the valley of Chamouni. 



Von Buch met with it in the prirahive mountains of Nor- 

 way ; and MaccuUoch, also, in the western islands of Scot- 

 land. This dip extends along the north shore of the St. 

 Lawrence for thirty miles, and is the more singular from be- 

 ing surrounded by rocks of the opposite inclination. — Al- 

 most all the older rocks of the Canadas have assumed the 

 latter position, as the primitive rocks of the Thousand Isl- 

 ands near Kingston, and those on the north and east of Lake 



