86 b 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Tow Hill. 



Lignite. 



Possiliferous 

 sandstones. 



Beds of lignite 



wood ; the other laminated and ranch softer. This is frequently 

 perforated by the holes of boring molluscs. 



Forming the bank of the Hi-ellan Eiver at its mouth at Tow Hill, is a 

 dark greenish-brown granular rock probably doleritic which weathers 

 brown, and is laminated in such wise as to simulate regular bedding. 

 Below high-water mark on the west side of the point a similar rock is 

 found overlying a small exjsosure of pale grey sandy clay, very hard, 

 and holding obscure root-like vegetable traces. These rocks pass 

 beneath those of Tow Hill, which presents a cliff of over 200 feet in 

 height to the sea, but slopes away more gradually inland. The cliff 

 displays a mass of columnar prisms which run with scarcely a break 

 from base to summit. This material is like that just described, but 

 more compact, and less easily affected by the weather. 



At Ya-kan Point one and a half miles further west, the next rock 

 exposures are found. The rocks are here sandstones, generally with a 

 calcareous cement, and in some layers becoming irregularly honey- 

 combed and weathering away fast along crack-lines. Pebbles are 

 abundant in a few places, while other beds contain so much argillaceous 

 matter that they might almost be called shales. Many branches and 

 irregular masses of wood converted to lignite are included. Some of 

 the bedding planes are covered with obscure vegetable fragments, 

 among which an impression of a dicotyledinous leaf was recognized. 

 The beds undulate at low angles but have perhaps a general dip inshore. 

 Pieces of lignite are here abundant on the beach, together with agates 

 such as are elsewhere found in the Tertiary volcanic rocks. 



Nine miles further westward, the intervening ba} r showing no- 

 exposures, Skon-un Point is composed of Tertiary sandstones, which 

 differ from any rocks of this age seen elsewhere in the islands by hold- 

 ing marine shells. The sandstones are here again calcareous, grey in 

 colour, and are composed of quartz, felspar and hornblende grains, such 

 as might be derived from the waste of dioritic or granitic rocks. In 

 some laj^ers these are crowded with shells, roughly heaped together as 

 though thrown upon a sea-beach, but little worn. Underlying the 

 shelly sandstones is lignite, in thick beds, but not so well exposed as 

 to admit of measurement. Though in some places quite black and 

 compact, the general character of the lignite is not such as to warrant 

 a belief in its value as a fuel so long as good wood can be obtained in 

 abundance. 



The matrix being rough, many of the shells collected here are more 

 or less exfoliated, and consequently present some difficulty in their 

 determination. Mr. J. P. Whiteaves has examined the collection and 

 furnishes a list of species, with remarks, as follows. — 



