132 



Kilometres Scotian peninsula. The highlands rise to a 

 general elevation of between 700 and 1,000 

 feet (215 and 300 m.) above the sea, but in 

 the low, very wide pass traversed by the railway, 

 the summit elevation is only 141 feet (32 m.). 

 After leaving the low-lying Triassic area in 

 the neighbourhood of Truro, the railway first 

 traverses a district underlain by Carboniferous, 

 perhaps in part Devonian, strata belonging 

 to the horizon of the Union-Riversdale group 

 and the Windsor series. Beyond this area, 

 the railway enters the belt of Pre-Cambrian 

 strata (the Goldbearing series), which with 

 intrusive bodies of Devonian granite, stretch 

 the whole length of the Atlantic seaboard of 

 Nova Scotia. The Goldbearing series consists 

 of about 35,000 feet (10,600 m.) of quartzites 

 and slates; the quartzites are more abundant 

 in the lower portion of the series while the 

 slates predominate in the upper portion. The 

 strata lie in large and small dome-shaped folds 

 which occur along axial lines that in a general 

 way strike northeast-southwest. 



372 m. Halifax. — Halifax is the capital of the 



597 • ikm. province of Nova Scotia. The city is situated 

 on the western side of one of the numerous 

 fiords that characterize the Atlantic coast of 

 the province. The major portion of the city 

 is underlain by dark slates of the upper division 

 of the Goldbearing series. The strata are 

 folded along axes striking about south-south- 

 west. The northern end of the city and the 

 country to the north are underlain by the 

 lower quartzite division arranged in a series 

 of folds parallel to those in the slate division. 

 A short distance west of the city the sediments 

 are bounded by a batholith of granite. Along 

 the granite contact the slates have been highly 

 metamorphosed, but they retain their normal 

 dip and strike. Absence of any local distur- 

 bances of the strata due to the granite intrusions 

 is characteristic of the whole area of the Gold- 

 bearing series. 



