146 Mineralogy and Geology of a part of Nova Scotia. 



Passing beneath the trap in its immediate vicinity, it 

 abounds with compressed and flattened spheroidal cavities, 

 which, instead of the zeolites, are, when occupied, filled 

 with rounded masses of gypsum, the mineral which usually 

 occurs in this rock. These facts obviously tend to establish 

 our theory of the origin of trap tuff and amygdaloid, and 

 render probable the explanation of these phenomena : that 

 the quantity of trap present was inadequate to complete the 

 process at this locality. 



Beds of gypsum, of practical worth, occur near the head 

 of the Basin of Mines, in the vicinity of the Subenacadie 

 River, where also occurs a large bed of limestone, contain- 

 ing the relics and impressions of marine shells. It is of an 

 ash grey color, and not very compact. In one specimen, a 

 few crystals of galena were observed, scattered through a 

 mass of petrified shells, which resembles the lituites descri- 

 bed in Parkinson's Outlines of Oryctology, p. 165, and por- 

 trayed in plate vi, fig. 7, of the same work. Much larger 

 and more valuable beds of gypsum occur in the county of 

 Hants, where first explored in the vicinity of Windsor about 

 thirty years ago. It still continues to furnish immense quan- 

 tities, the greater part of which is sent to the United States. 

 This gypsum is of a bluish color, and is highly valued in the 

 United States as a manure, although in its native country it 

 does not appear to contribute in the least to the fertility of 

 the soil ; in fact, the hills entirely composed of gypsum, 

 were not clothed with so luxuriant a crop of vegetation as 

 those where this mineral was altogether wanting in the soil. 

 The trap rocks by their decay furnish a far more productive 

 soil, as exhibited in the township of Cornwallis, justly enti- 

 tled, the " Garden of Acadia," and the whole extent of the 

 base of the North Mountains. 



The gypsum in the vicinity of Windsor, abounds in those 

 conical or inverted funnel shaped cavities, supposed to have 

 originated in the solution of rock salt, (muriate of soda,) 

 which has been imagined once to have occupied those spa- 

 ces. No salt however, or traces of its existence, were dis- 

 coverable, and if any exists it is unknown to the inhabitants. 

 In one of these caverns about ten or fifteen years since, the 

 bones of a human being, supposed from the relics of arrows 

 found with them, to have been those of one of the aborigin- 

 al inhabitants, were discovered in opening a gypsum quarry. 

 It ispresumed that this unfortunate individual, while pursuing 



