320 Mineralogy and Geology of a part of Nova Scotia, 



than the quartz enveloping it. Botryoidal cacholong also 

 occurs, encrusting the interior of vacant cavities in veins of 

 quartz. This locality will repay the mineralogical traveller 

 for the trouble of a visit; and the course of the stream is a 

 correct guide to the spot where specimens may be procured. 

 The only place which we have not already described, wor- 

 thy of a visit from the geologist, is that part of Digby Neck 

 where the North Mountain range is interrupted by the Gut of 

 Annapolis. This is two miles from the town of Digby. At 

 this place, is situated the Light-house, which serves to guide 

 navigators to the entrance of Annapolis Basin, the most ca- 

 pacious and secure harbor for large vessels in Nova Scotia, 

 and in which, as is observed by one of her historians, a thou- 

 sand ships may ride in safety, secure from every wind. 



The site of the Light-house is on a projecting rock of co- 

 lumnar trap of the most compact variety, and the numerous 

 irregular crevices have been filled with chalcedony, jasper 

 and agate, which, adhering firmly to the contiguous rock, 

 give it additional firmness, enabling it to resist successfully 

 the fury of the waves, which, in boisterous weather, dash 

 completely over the precipice, and wash from its surface, 

 every trace of soil or vegetation. The centres of the col- 

 umns of trap appear to be more readily acted upon by the sea, 

 than the parts contiguous to the chalcedonic veins, and thus 

 concavities are produced, in which the spray from the sea 

 slowly evaporated, leaves crystals of its saline contents, thus 

 constituting natural salt pans. 



The rocks at this place are columnar trap, incumbent on 

 amygdaloid, and present a surface exactly corresponding to 

 that on the opposite side of the Gut, which is but half a mile 

 wide, and appears as if it had been separated by violence, 

 and not worn away by the action of the water. 



Passing Annapolis Gut and pursuing our investigations 

 along the coast of the Bay of Fundy, our attention will first 

 be directed to Chute's Cove, which is twenty miles from An- 

 napolis Gut. The intermediate coast we did not examine, 

 but from the information we obtained in regard to it, we are 

 led to believe that it presents a line of uninterrupted precipi- 

 ces of trap rocks, affording the mariner but few places of 

 landing, and the coves that occur are not of sufficient mag- 

 nitude to ensure protection from the sudden gales which 

 spring up on this coast. 



Chute's Cove forms a wide interval in the prevailing ab- 

 ruptness of the coast. Its bottom presents a great extent of 



