DOMINO HARBOR. I 59 



miles to the south ; while northward this low land or 

 basin stretches away for several miles, while twenty or 

 thirty miles inland the country rises into high hills and 

 mountains, the highest summit rising perhaps 1,500 feet 

 above the level of the sea. This range or group of peaks 

 was probably the Mealy Mountains situated on the 

 northern side of Sandwich Bay. 



The low plain before us evidently belonged to a dis- 

 tinct geological system from any that we had yet seen ; 

 it rested in a depression or basin of Laurentian gneiss, 

 and was called by Lieber the " Domino gneiss," and 

 probably belongs to the Upper Laurentian system. 



The plain is worn smoothly, and slopes gradually 

 toward Domino Harbor ; scattered over it are patches of 

 large cobble-stones, which indicate that it was once a 

 raised ocean-bottom, now at least 125 feet high, which 

 reached to the base of the angular masses of trap rock 

 capping the gneiss elevation. Strip off the scattered 

 masses of matted growth of curlew-berry and cranberry, 

 and the smooth, wave-worn, pebbly surface would seem 

 as if but yesterday won from the dominion of the sea. 



Domino Harbor, or Domino Run, as it is called on the 

 chart, is a broad, deep fissure which nearly divides the 

 island in two, the shores vertical though not very high, 

 with fishing-houses along the western side, under which 

 were moored seven brigs with their sails "unbent," the 

 bare masts rising but slightly above the cliffs. Not a 

 tree or bush is to be seen in any direction, only low 

 spreading masses of willow, belonging to two species : 

 one of them just beginning to throw out its catkins ; the 

 other, with small, acute glaucous leaves, had done flower- 

 ing. Running over the leaves of the willow was an 



