360 GILPIN — CARBONIFEROUS DISTRICT OF ST. GEORGE's BAY. 



course, and occasional crops of very email coal seams from two to 

 ten inches thick, with underclays bearing stigmaria. The first 

 regular coal seam is now met, its thickness is two feet nine inches, 

 with a band of ironstone balls in the roof, as it is between sand- 

 stones there is not much probability of any increase in thickness. 

 The measures are lying at a very heavy angle, with a strike 

 approaching north and south. Higher up the measures become 

 flatter with another seam three feet thick, then follow coarse gritty 

 sandstones for about two miles. 



Beyond this point the current of the river slackens, the banks 

 become low and afford no exposures. Thickets of alder and long 

 grass shelter the wild geese which at the time of my visit were 

 breeding in great numbers. We are now at the foot of the plateau 

 and find the river leaping in a cascade from the side of the Silurian 

 mountains. 



Climbing the nearest hill we endeavour to trace the course of 

 the river and imagine its source far up in the Table Land. As we 

 gaze into the unknown interior, range after range of hills rise up 

 before us ; their flanks, covered with spruce underwood, and bare 

 storm swept summits looking down upon the little lakes, each set 

 in a soft green swamp, over which the Carriboo can scarce pick his 

 way. The dark bitter waters unmoved by any wind, reflect only 

 the wild fowl and clear cut hill tops. Such is the source of nearly 

 all the Newfoundland rivers. In spring they pour from the snow 

 fed swamps an impassable torrent, and dwindle away in summer to 

 a mere thread. 



Retracing our steps to the sea coast we find a similar section 

 exposed on Fissel's River, ten miles to the eastward. Between 

 this point and St. George town are large hills of drift, sometimes 

 over one hundred feet high, and pointing tow^ards the gap in the 

 hills through which the Main River flows. South of the town 

 about six miles from the shore, is a spur of the older rocks containing 

 an immense deposit of Magnetite, identical in appearance with the 

 fragments mentioned as found in the conglomerate. The specimen 

 of Magnetite in the Museum, given by Mr. Bishop, is fi-om this 

 locality. 



