HONEYMAN GEOLOGY OF ANTIGONISH COUNTY. 119 



of the same character, and in and around the town of Antigonish 

 are shiiilar elevations of peculiar interest. My attention was specially 

 directed to these about three years ago by the sinking of a well on the 

 side of the one on which the old court house stands. After passing- 

 through several feet of gravel a bed of clay was struck which was 

 peculiarly dry, compact and light in colour, containing imbedded 

 fossil wood in abundance, well preserved, in the centre of which was 

 phosphate of iron of a beautiful blue colour, which might be used 

 as a pigment. On examining other mounds on the bank of Right's 

 river I discovered sections of these exhibiting the same structure, and 

 also having the same fossil. A great part of this superficial deposit 

 is evidently derived from the subjacent rocks of the particular locality 

 in which the deposit is found, and hence we naturally look at these 

 deposits for information regarding the character of the prevailing 

 rocks of the locality, especially in regard to the existence or proba- 

 ble extent of the distribution of these rocks. Of course great caution 

 is to be observed in the application of this principle, owing to the 

 fact that a part of this deposit and that possibly the larger, may con- 

 sist of transported material which has been so triturated and rolled 

 as to leave the question of its source open to all sorts of conjecture. 

 In regard to the transportation of these I am disposed to consider 

 that it was the effect of glacial agency. I have not yet been fortu- 

 nate enough to discover so satisfactory indications in the region in 

 question as we have elsewhere, of the existence of the glaciers. It 

 will appear not at all astonishing that such a deposit derived largely 

 from felspathic and calcareous rocks, and so extensively distributed, 

 should give the county a character for agriculture. To a great ex- 

 tent, however, this character has arisen from a partial redistribution 

 of the deposit, which I have just described, with the addition of or- 

 ganic matter, and in some instances with an addition of lime, gypsum, 

 salt and felspathic constituents. This new deposit forms flats on 

 the sides of rivers, past or present, and a great delta at their conflu- 

 ence. These are comaiionly called intervales. We have thus the 

 rich and extensive intervale of the Ohio river and the Beaver meadow 

 — the great intervales of West river and South river, and the smaller 

 ones of Right's river, James' river and Braley brook, and what is by 

 the old inhabitant often called the " great intervale," or the delta 

 on which the town of Antigonish is chiefly built. These intervales, 



