the Geology of the North Coast of the St. Lawrence. 99 



of red felspar, quartz, and hornblende, the felspar predominating. They are 

 succeeded to the eastward, opposite St. Genevieve Island, by true granite, 

 consisting of red felspar, white quartz, and black mica. 



The connexion of the granite and limestone is well shown at several points. 

 On the east side of Pillage Bay and Mount St. Genevieve, 332 feet above the 

 sea, the limestone rests immediately upon the granite in nearly horizontal 

 strata. Opposite St. Genevieve Island is a round, isolated and precipitous 

 hill of limestone, which rests also upon genuine granite ; and other similarly 

 shaped hills of limestone, with mural sides, but smaller and of less elevation, 

 occur in the same vicinity, resting likewise on granite. 



The country for many miles inland is composed of low granite mounds, 

 the intervening hollows being filled with stagnant water, peat, or other 

 vegetable matter. 



The great irregularity of the bottom of the sea among these islands, as indicated by the sound- 

 ing lead, strengthens the inference from analogy, that the islands rest upon granitic hills, in the 

 same manner as the isolated hills of limestone mentioned above. Some of the rocks and shoals, 

 under the sea, are as precipitous as the islands above it, having thirty or forty fathoms of water 

 close to them. It does not seem difficult to imagine, in this respect as well as in others, a resem- 

 blance in these ancient calcareous formations, to those which are forming at the present day, on 

 the summit of submarine hills in tropical climates. 



Neither limestone nor any other transition or secondary rock, was met 

 with to the eastward of St. Genevieve. 



10. The coast thence to Cape Whittle, in the longitude of 60° west, and 

 latitude 50° 10' north, is composed of varieties of granitic rocks, in which, 

 contrary to what has been observed of the granites of Canada, hornblende 

 is a rare constituent. The coast is of very moderate elevation, possesses 

 few remarkable features, and cannot be distinguished from the deck of a 

 vessel, at a distance exceeding four or five leagues. It is broken into bays 

 and inlets, and lined with innumerable small islands, rocks, and reefs*. 



The granite of the main and islands is almost everywhere covered with peat, full of stagnant 

 ponds of dark bog-water. Trees become more and more scarce as we proceed to the eastward, 

 till at last they are almost exclusively confined to alluvial formations of sand and clay, v?hich 

 are of rare occurrence, and, excepting at Natashquan, of limited extent. 



It is not my intention to describe mineralogically the different granitic 

 rocks which occur on this coast. Metallic minerals, with the exception of 



* Few places can be imagined more barren, dreary, and desolate, than this coast, or more 

 gloomy than the climate in which it is situated. It is girded with ice, and covered with snow, from 

 October to June, and is wrapped in dense and cold fogs for more than two thirds of the remain- 

 der of the year : yet it teems with life in the summer season. 



o 2 



