400 



DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY BORDERING 



Then succeeds about a quarter of a mile of shingle beach, followed by a point 

 formed of uptilted altered slates, traversed by a calcareous vein, eighteen inches 

 wide, running northwest and southeast ; then shingle, altered slates, a little shingle 

 beach, and slates twenty-five feet high, not tilted quite so much as the last, and 

 traversed by several veins from four to twelve inches wide. 



About one hundred and fifty feet back from the Lake, there are seen, soon after, 

 perpendicular shaly rocks, forty feet high (No. 672), very little, if at all, altered. 

 They have now become more siliceous than the former specimens. 



Having, on a former occasion, walked along the large bay which succeeds, and 

 there observed slates, I directed the canoe across to the next point, which is the 

 trappean overflow or spur from the highest trap peak, already mentioned as being 

 six hundred and thirty-four feet high. The underlying alternations of metamor- 

 phosed siliceous and argillaceous rocks here dip not from the spur or overflow (three 

 hundred and seventy feet high), but from the main trap ridge, consequently south- 

 southeast, except in the vicinity of a narrow four foot dike (No. 673). These 

 altered rocks continue about ten feet high, overlaid by the greenstone trap, which 

 has a rude bedding of the same inclination that they have, viz., 15° to 18° south- 

 southeast. The direction or bearing of this trap ridge, as seen from the Lake, ap- 

 pears to be north-northeast and south-southwest. It is about three or four hundred 

 yards across, at its termination, and seems to be an overflow which has acquired 

 the same inclination as the rocks over which it has flowed, until it comes to the 

 end of them, when the inclination has become vertical, or even over the perpen- 

 dicular. 



The altered rocks are again found (after turning the point) , with about the same 

 dip as on the other side, 15° south-southeast. 



Some of the shales are light-coloured, and are composed of distinctly-rounded 

 grains of quartz, like the lower beds of the sandstone series on St. Louis River. 

 These beds are from two to twelve inches thick. The argillaceous beds cleave with 

 great facility ; but as the trap is approached, they become more compact, and as- 

 sume a hornblendic character. 



The overlying trap bed is shown in the subjoined section : 



o. Slates anil shales. a Ob. Trap bed. 



The remainder of this spur, where it reaches the shore, is shingle beach. 

 There appeared to be no changes worthy of note, between this point and our en- 

 campment, at the commencement of the Grand Portage Trail. 



I regret that I had not an opportunity of returning to verify some of the details 

 on this very interesting spot ; but hope the above brief Report, in addition to your 

 detailed description of the collected specimens, may aid in giving some idea of the 

 general formation and geological character of Pigeon Point. 



I am, sir, very respectfully, 



Your obedient servant, 



Richard Owen. 



