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



every cast of the lead. Indeed there is nothing- more remarkable than the 

 immense quantity of calcareous matter, supplied by testaceous and crustaceous 

 animals^ in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence. The beaches were occa- 

 sionally composed almost exclusively of small fragments of shells. In depths 

 exceeding fifty or sixty fathoms the bottom was usually mud. 



Another fact which forced itself upon our notice, was the frequent occur- 

 rence of the bones of cetacea along the shores, and probably, for the most 

 part, of animals destroyed by the whalers. They were frequently observed 

 on the low alluvial flats at the entrances of rivers, and were sometimes ac- 

 companied by marine, freshwater, and terrestrial testacea, together with the 

 bones of quadrupeds and birds*. In such situations these remains can scarcely 

 escape being carried away by freshets, at the periodical melting of the winter's 

 snows, and being promiscuously deposited in the mud and sand on the bars 

 of the rivers. May we not attribute to similar combinations of circum- 

 stances, the admixture of marine with freshwater, or terrestrial remains, in 

 more ancient formations, where no other circumstances appear to contradict 

 such an inference ? 



12. I shall close this paper with a few observations intended to complete a 

 very rough outline of the geology of the river and estuary of the St. Lawrence 

 below Quebec. 



All the islands on the south shore of the St. Lawrence above the junction 

 of the Saquenay, and the few below it, together with the whole of the south 

 coast as low down as Cape Rozier, are composed of alternating strata of grey- 

 wacke and slate, dipping to the southward at angles varying from about 30° to 

 nearly 90°. 



Above Cape Chat the hills which bound the valley of the St. Lawrence to 

 the southward, are some miles from the coast, but at Cape St. Anns, a few miles 

 below Cape Chat, they approach the sea, and give a mountainous character 

 to the remainder of the coast as far as Cape Gaspe. 



We have ascertained, by actual observation, that the hills next the sea, as 

 high as 1000 or 1500 feet, are of greywacke and slate. There is a higher, 

 parallel chain a few miles back, which, in one part, is nearly 4000 feet above 

 the sea, being the highest land in Canada or the United States, excepting the 

 mountains of New Hampshire. This higher chain has been said to be primary 

 and the outline or contour of the hills which compose it, lead to that infer- 

 ence. I doubt, nevertheless, of this being the case, because I iiave observed 



* On the sands at the entrance of the river at Mingan, I saw the whole of these remains 

 toffether. 



