HOJs^EYMAN GEOLOGY OF ANTIGONISH COUNTY. 113 



level, and the vertical position into which they have been thrown, 

 show that they have been subjected to a great elevating process. 

 The conformability in these respects of the Devonian and Silurian 

 in this representative district, shows that the elevation took place after 

 the deposition of the Devonian, while the unconformability of the 

 succeeding formation, the lower carboniferous, and other considera- 

 tions to which we shall yet allude, show that the elevation took place 

 prior to the latter period. In the Marshy Hope we fird a similar 

 order of things, showing that the elevation of Silurian and Devonian, 

 and the formation of the mountains of this county, was posf. Devon- 

 ian, and generally pre- carboniferous. The Silurias and Devonias 

 of Arisaig with their synclinal arrangement (vide Geology of Arisaig J 

 show the effects of a later upheaval, to which I shall yet refer. These 

 formations which I have just examined are only a skirting of the 

 mountains of the county. These mountains are mainly composed of 

 metamorphic felspathic rocks of uncertain age and origin, or syenite 

 and diorite, &c. Whatever may be their age and origin, I believe 

 that as regards both they resemble the granite of the Xova Scotia 

 auriferous zone. I also believe that while it is probable that the 

 latter was elevated prior to the deposition of a, it may not have 

 been exempt from subsidence coeval with that to which I have 

 already referred. Be this as it may there can be little doubt that 

 the felspathic rocks under examination, formed the bottom of the 

 shallow sea in which strata a were deposited. That the metamorph- 

 ism of the one was antecedent to the deposition of the other is evident, 

 from the fact that organisms of A in closest proximity to the rocks in 

 question remain unaltered, while at Arisaig the typical strata A in 

 contact with trap of a subsequent period, are altered into a jaspideous 

 rock, stratification and organisms being thoroughly obliterated 

 (vide Geology of Arisaig.) Succeeding the sedimentary rocks already 

 examined in the localities so often referred to, we find a certain 

 amount of obscurity, and then sedimentary rocks of coarser 

 material, which cannot be confounded with those preceding. 

 Dr. Dawson has named these lower carboniferous ; so far as I 

 have observed in this county, they may be called 5w5-carboniferous. 

 In these there are three degrees of coarseness observed. The finest 

 strata occur at upper South river, succeeding the Devonian of the 

 Lochaber series. Here the carboniferous approximate nearest in 



