52 Fingal and East Coast. 



ravines, and in the deepest channels of the streams, — 

 indices at once of the perturbing, denuding, and disinte- 

 grating agencies to which, during indefinite periods of 

 time, the country has been subjected. 



There runs along the Mount Nicholas range, about 

 300 feet from its summit, the slightly undulating outline 

 of a wooded terrace-like level, which has its counter- 

 part on the opposite side of the valley, stretching on one 

 hand toward Fingal, and on the other along the flat- 

 topped hill south of St. Patrick's Head. This line indi- 

 cates, to my apprehension, the elevation which the newer 

 sandstone has attained, though itself for the most part 

 undiscoverable beneath the mass of decomposed green- 

 stone and other debris accumulated upon it. 



It is worthy of remark that, at an elevation consider- 

 ably above the present altitude of the newer sandstone, 

 fragments of fossil wood and of hardened clay-schists, 

 more or less rich in impressions of plants, are profusely 

 scattered over the greenstone on both sides of the valley, 

 and indeed throughout the district ; indicating, probably, 

 the existence at one period of coal strata, and the fossil- 

 iferous beds overlying them at a level relatively much 

 higher than now obtains. One stray fragment of clay- 

 schist which I picked up on Mount Nicholas displays a 

 very distinct impression of an Equisetum or A sterophyl- 

 Hte : it may prove to be the Aster ophyllitis equiseti- 

 formis (?), which is well known in the European coal- 

 measures. 



In almost every deep water-course worn down the side 

 of Mount Nicholas, traces of coal and the coal strata 

 are discernible. All the coal there is bituminous, and 

 the number of seams hitherto discovered is six or seven. 



That which, from its excellent quality and great thick- 

 ness, claims attention first, crops out in the bed of a creek 

 upon the estate of F. L. Stieglitz, Esq., of Killymoon, 



