348 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [March 13, 



into two great groups, wliicli, so far as I am aware, have not hitherto 

 been accurately distinguished by writers on the geology of Nova 

 Scotia. In the present paper I propose to notice the composition, 

 arrangement, and distinctive characters of these groups ; and to 

 describe, somewhat in detail, the metalhferous veins which have been 

 discovered in one of them. 



I. One of these metamorphic groups is, in the part of the province 

 now under consideration, limited to the Atlantic coast and its vicinity. 

 The prevailing stratified rocks in this group are, compact and flaggy 

 grey quartzite (often weathering white), mica slate, and clay slate ; 

 the latter usually of dark colours, and occasionally passing into flinty 

 slate and quartzite. These rocks usually occur in beds of great 

 thickness. The hypogene rocks associated with them are white and 

 flesh-coloured granite, which has penetrated the metamorphic rocks 

 in large irregular bands and masses. The white granite, which is 

 the most abundant, has white potash felspar, translucent shghtly 

 purplish quartz, and grey and black mica. I am not aware that any 

 workable metallic deposits have been found in this group, or that any 

 fossil remains are contained in it. As the association with granite is 

 a somewhat characteristic feature, this group may, for the purposes 

 of this paper, be named the granitic group of metamorphic rocks. 

 It must not however be confounded with the granitic group of Dr. 

 Gesner's arrangement*, which consists exclusively of hypogene rocks, 

 and includes syenite, porphyrj^, and trap, belonging in my opinion to 

 a different system. 



The granitic group forms a continuous, or nearly continuous belt 

 along the Atlantic coast of the province, narrow at its north-eastern 

 extremity, and apparently attaining its greatest development in the 

 western counties. In the part of the province now under considera- 

 tion, its southern or coast side has a general direction of S. 68° W. ; 

 its inland side, though presenting some broad imdulations, has a 

 general direction of about S. 80° W. Its extreme breadth at Cape 

 Canseau, its north-eastern extremity, where it is bounded on one side 

 by the ocean, and on the other by Chedabucto Bay, is only about 

 eight miles. In its extension westward, it gradually increases in 

 width, imtil at the head of the west branch of the St. Mary's River, 

 eighty miles distant from Cape Canseau, it is about thirty miles in 

 breadth. Westward of this point, it does not increase in breadth 

 within the district to which this paper refers. 



In the peninsula of Cape Canseau, mica slate is very abundant and 

 presents many beautiful varieties f ; it is associated vath. quartzite, 

 clay slate, and granite. At the St. Mary's River, the northern side 

 of the belt consists of a great thickness of grey quartzite, often flaggy 

 and micaceous, and occasionally intersected by veins of white quartz. 

 In the centre of the belt great masses of granite appear at a httle 

 distance from the river section, and nearer the coast, mica slate and 



* Industrial Resources of Nova Scotia, p. 232. 



f I am indebted to Mr. Whiteman, of the Railroad Survey, for an interesting 

 suite of specimens from this peninsula. 



