REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I9IO I45 



the rock platforms and the volcanic-gypsum hills. To the first 

 is due, of course, the present outline and extent of the charted 

 islands and in them are to be found brilliant illustrations of the 

 process of deflation — dune building and anchoring, rock etch- 

 ing — and, further, evidence of the slow upward lift of the islands 

 save perhaps at the southeast. By the rock platforms are meant 

 the low llat-topped rock lands which skirt the rounded hills 

 and reach the coast line in level surfaces and low red fronts 

 of 50 feet or so. The hills are all of one type and I propose to 

 speak of them as demoiselle hills; rounded, symmetrical, beehive- 

 shaped elevations with grassy surfaces and separated by shallow 

 or deep cauldronlike depressions. They are the ribs of the 

 islands presenting not only higher but much more resistant 

 fronts to the attack of the sea than the soft crumbling platforms 

 of red sandstone. Their height varies from 580 feet, St Lawrence 

 hill on Entry, down to the knolls and knobs on Grindstone and 

 Grosse Isle, some of which are no higher than the dunes upon the 

 beaches. 



These many breasted islands proclaim their neglected fertility 

 and trumpet their virgin claims in the unheeding ears of their 

 fisher folks, whose thoughts are only of the sea. It has perhaps 

 still to be demonstrated that the demoiselle hills have all a like 

 origin. The Demoiselle on the shore of Pleasant bay at Am- 

 herst is a volcanic-gypsum knob (and by this term, which I shall 

 endeavor to explain more fully, is meant an association of gyp- 

 sum with volcanic effusions and debris), those on Grindstone are 

 mostly of the same order, but Cape aux Meules on Grindstone 

 and Pointe Basse on Alright are gray sandstone knobs in which 

 the presence of either volcanics or gypsum has not made itself 

 evident at the surface, whether or not those may lie at the root 

 of them. The general landscape effect of the islands is well 

 shown in the accompanying panorama view, extending from 

 Cape aux Meules on Grindstone (left) northward to the outer- 

 most tip of Alright. The tickle into House Harbor enters the 

 middle distance, the rock front at the left is gray sandstone, 

 the hills next north the volcanic-gypsum series traversing Grind- 

 stone, and the rounded tops of Alright beyond lie scattered among 

 the half-disclosed gypsum masses. 



Rocks. In a broad sense the rocks of the islands are gray, 

 hard, schistose sandstones, sometimes slightly mottled ; brilliant 

 purple-red or blood-red soft sandstones; volcanic masses in 

 the form of diabase sheets, accompanied by agglomerations of 



