32 HONETMAN — ON THE GEOLOGY OF NOVA SCOTIA. 



Road the limestone of the Doctor's quarry and their underlying 

 conglomerates, are seen to lie unconformably on slates having their 

 cleavage joints glistening with scales of micaceous peroxide of iron. 

 The slates are the ex^me outcrop of the south side of the southern 

 anticlinal ; they dip at an angle of 55*^, while the unconformable 

 conglomerates and limestones dip at an angle of 30*^. 



These facts are obvious, and the conclusion simple and prosaic; 

 somewhat different it will be deemed from the poetic and lofty 

 imaginings of some theorists, who, without observing facts, have 

 seen the Sugar Loaf with its elevation of 710 feet (Bayfield) and 

 its congeners with a glorious saddle of thousands of feet of carbon- 

 iferous strata which have disappeared as if by magic, by the glorious 

 agents of denudation. These have succeeded wondrously in 

 establishins: a connection between the various carboniferous areas of 

 Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, and of these conjointly with other 

 carboniferous areas of the American Continent in defiance of all 

 iirterposed obstructions and the sterling principles of Inductive 

 Philosophy. 



The summit of the Sugar Loaf is about 1 J miles from Anti- 

 gonish — the second axis at McDonald's Brook is four miles from 

 the same town and the mountains at Walsh's, the northern 

 exposure of the Silurian area. This appears to have been a small 

 subtriangular island in the sea of the lower carboniferous period. 

 There is a great band of conglomerates and grits with limestone 

 and gypsum on its southern side, which separates the Sugar Loaf 

 Silurian area from the great area of which the mountains of Arisaig 

 form a part. This lower carboniferous band connects the carbon- 

 iferous area which lies to the north of the Sugar Loaf area and 

 stretches to St. George's Bay with the great carboniferous area 

 which lies to the south of the same area, and stretches to the Strait 

 of Canso. This band of conglomerates is an anticlinal — the axis 

 of this is concealed. It seems to be a continuation of the northern 

 axis of the Sugar Loaf area — the same axis seeming to pass into 

 the other Silurian area. Whether this is the fact or not, remains 

 to be proved by future investigation. 



The gypsum deposits which lie to the south of the Sugar Loaf 

 area, and skirts it throughout its length extending along the 



