II 

 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



GEOLOGY. 



(G. A. Young.) 



The part of Canada lying east of the St. Lawrence river 

 below Quebec city and having a width of about 500 miles 

 (800 km.) in an east and west direction, includes the 

 provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and 

 New Brunswick, and a part of the province of Quebec. 

 Though presenting a great diversity of physical and 

 geological features, the region as a whole may be regarded 

 as a unit inasmuch as the geological and physical provinces 

 into which the region is divisible, all trend in a northeasterly 

 direction. Having regard, then, to the structural elements, 

 the region may be said to have a width of 375 miles (595 km.) 

 measured from the St. Lawrence on the northwest, to the 

 Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia on the southeast. 



One of the more marked physical provinces of the region 

 is the plain bordering the St. Lawrence — the St. Lawrence 

 lowland. A very marked feature to the southwest of 

 Quebec city, this plain to the northeast gradually narrows 

 and is limited to the territory immediately bordering the 

 St. Lawrence on the south. To the southeast, the St. 

 Lawrence lowland merges into an elevated tract of country 

 extending in a general northeasterly direction. South- 

 west of the latitude of Quebec city, this upland is formed, 

 in Canada, by three rudely parallel ridges which over 

 considerable areas rise above 2,000 feet (600 m.). Pro- 

 ceeding northeastward to a point east of the city of Quebec, 

 this upland, the Notre Dame mountains, sinks to lower 

 and lower elevations, but beyond, to the northeast, it 

 again increases in height, so that in Gaspe peninsula it 

 forms an uplifted area with a general elevation of from 

 1,000 to 2,000 feet (300 to 600 m.) with peaks rising above 

 3,500 feet (1,050 m.). 



The higher more rugged portion of this upland is bordered 

 on the southwest, in the Gaspe Peninsula, by a plateau- 

 like region extending to the shores of the Bay of Chaleur, 

 and having a general elevation of about 1,000 feet (300 m.). 

 This plateau-like upland extends in a southwest direction 

 through northwestern New Brunswick and continues 

 southward on both sides of the St. John valley where the 



