358 GILPIN CARBONIFEROUS DISTRICT OF ST. GEORGe's BAY. 



windings among the boulder strown valleys afford capital breeding 

 ground for the salmon so abundant on this shore. At Cape Ray the 

 lowland diminishes in width to three miles. And in front of the 

 Cape supports three large conical hills called the Sugar loaves. 

 Their bare granitic flanks, thrown into relief by the dark back-^ 

 ground, form fitting portals to the great silurian plain of the St. 

 Lawrence. Behind rises the precipitous front of Cape Ray, its dark 

 slates relieved by the patches of perennial snow in the deep ravines. 

 Between the highland and the most northerl}'- of the Sugar loaves 

 are traces of a great fault, which Professor Murray of the Geologi- 

 cal Survey claims to have traced across the island. 



As we pass to the Cape we see the dark line of the plateau 

 trending away inland to the eastward, till its scarpement grows dim 

 and is lost to the eye beyond the head of Bay St. George. 



The next highland that we notice is Cape Auguille, an enormous 

 ridge of intrusive rock running obliquely toward the plateau, but 

 sinking beneath the carboniferous strata before reaching the Codroy 

 River. Between these two Capes is the carboniferous district of the 

 Codroy Valley, triangular in shape, its base resting on the sea, and 

 its apex pointing to the east. The measures on the shore dip 

 inland, and consist of red sandstones and shales with at least two 

 large deposits of gypsum. Were the dip of the measures undis- 

 turbed we would expect to find the productive coal strata at no 

 great distance from the shore, but the gradual approach of the 

 boundary rocks continually brings up lower beds. This accounts 

 for the large development of Lower Carboniferous measures exposed 

 in following the Codroy River to the eastward. 



Two small seams of coal with beds of black shale are said to 

 crop near its source, but no systematic exploration has yet been 

 made. From the facts observed on the Barasois Rivers, it is possi- 

 ble however, that they may indicate the commencement of an area 

 of productive measures. 



On rounding Cape Auguille we are at the mouth of St. George's 

 Bay, a magnificent sheet of water 60 miles long, and 40 wide at 

 its entrance. We again meet the carboniferous strata affording a 

 beautiful section at their point of junction with the older rocks of 

 the Cape. The dark slates pitching steeply to the north, are 



