THE DOMINO GNEISS. 28/ 



rock was exceedingly fine, in others it assumed almost a 

 conglomeritic aspect, from the presence of small masses 

 of quartz. The quartz is often colored green. This 

 rock weathers easily, leaving masses of quartz projecting 

 on the surface ; it is comparatively soft, and has been 

 greatly denuded. It thus forms at this locality a broad, 

 low, flat plain about ten miles broad and fifteen to twenty 

 miles long, through which rise bosses of trap.~ Its sur- 

 face is but a few feet above the level of the sea, and to 

 one just coming from the high coast to the southward 

 this broad, naked flat, almost wholly destitute of vegeta- 

 tion, with no valleys to shelter even a growth of spruce 

 trees, and but slightly furrowed by glacial action, with 

 patches of white rock glistening in the sun from between 

 the dull green morasses and ponds that are everywhere 

 scattered over its surface, — presents a strange and foreign 

 feature of the coast scenery, startling from its very tame- 

 ness. When in contact with the trap hills the rock is 

 much harder, rising into higher elevations. 



Nowhere was I able to see the juncture of this rock 

 with the Lower Laurentian gneiss, which rises from the 

 edge of this formation into high hills and mountains. 

 So smooth had this plain been levelled and worn by gla- 

 cial and aqueous agents, that it was difficult to observe 

 the dip and strike of the beds, which, when undisturbed 

 by eruptive rocks, I am inclined to believe, dip easterly 

 at a slight angle. At Dumplin Harbor, which is a bight 

 in an island lying just S. E. of Huntington Island, the 

 gneiss, when lying next to trap, dips at an angle of 35° 

 S. E., the strike of the beds being northeasterly. At 

 Tub Harbor these rocks come in contact with the Lau- 

 rentian syenite. Between the lighter-colored gneiss 



