GILPIN CARBONIFEROUS DISTRICT OF ST. GEORGE's BAY. 357 



Art. III. — Sketch of the Carboniferous District of St. 

 George's Bay, Newfoundland. By Edwin Gilpin, 

 M. A., F. G. S., Member of the Newcastle Institute 

 Mining Engineers. 



{Read December 9, 1873.) 



The south shore of Newfoundland, from Isle Aux Morts to Cape 

 Eay, is composed of dark slates and quartzites, pitching at a heavy 

 angle to the south, and much disturbed by veins and masses of 

 coarse feltspathic granite. The metamorphism has been very great, 

 and the action violent, the intrusive rock being often twisted into 

 curious knots containing fragments of the resisting slates. I was- 

 unable to form any idea of the age of these strata, but they closely 

 resemble our Lower Silurian rocks in the neighbourhood of their 

 trap. 



Since my return, a small crystal was given to me as coming 

 from Port au Basque. It is of a bluish colour, containing phos- 

 phorous and a large proportion of iron ; it hardly answered the 

 description of Vivianite as given by Dana, but seems to correspond 

 more closely with the mineral Triphyline. Any of the phos- 

 phates occurring here in sufficient quantity would be of great 

 economic value, as the locality is one of the most accessible in New- 

 foundland. 



The long narrow reefs and islands that skirt the shore, forming 

 the ports of Channel and Deadman's Harbour, have been worn out 

 by the action of the waves upon the beds whose strike is generally 

 parallel to the line of the coast. About six miles inland from Port 

 au Basque is a high range of hills, forming a spur of the great 

 interior plateau of the island, and running parallel to the shore 

 until it terminates in Cape Ray. The land rises gradually to their 

 foot in small hills, many of which are composed of granite. The 

 width of the hill range is about ten miles at this point, but it already 

 exhibits the distinctive features of the plateau, being covered with 

 swamps and spruce underwood draining into large ponds and lakes. 

 The rivers rising in this water shed, flow in all directions toward the 

 sea; leaving the highlands in a series of cascades and rapids, their 



