442 



DESCRIPTION OF 



The sketch of the right bank exhibits a singular case of bedding and lamination, 

 nearly coincident, but varying a few degrees, as shown by the previous section 

 (Fig. 2). s, s, s, represents the mass of the sandstone, in the state of a soft red 

 shale, laminated, at an angle of about 75° ; a, a, a, are thin beds of a hard sandstone, 

 passing obliquely through s, s, s, at a higher angle. They are very regular and 

 well defined, and may be seen about two miles, by the channel below the falls, at 

 the crossing of the Montreal trail. As you approach the falls along the channel, 

 the sandstone frequently assumes a brown or dark colour, and it and the conglome- 

 rate show the effects of alteration by heat. The two chutes of the upper falls, 

 which are over trap-rocks, and very romantic, make a plunge, as measured by Mr. 

 Ives, a government surveyor, of seventy-eight feet ; and the river at the crossing, 

 at the head of the falls, is by Dr. Norwood's measurement, three hundred and 

 eighty-three feet above the Lake. It will thus be seen that the descent of the 

 Montreal, in less than three miles by a direct line, is two hundred and forty-nine 

 feet, exclusive of the cataracts. No description can convey an idea of the terrific 

 force of this stream, swollen by heavy rains, as it rushes down the crooked and 

 dark gulf which its own powers have excavated in the rocks. 



About eight miles from the Lake, at the mouth of Raymond's Creek, and nearly 

 in a south direction, are the abandoned works of the " New York and Michigan 

 Mining Company," called " The Phelps's Location." Specimens 50, 51, and 52, of 

 my collection, represent the character of the trap, as exposed in the East Fork of 

 Bad River, half a mile above and below the cabins. It lies in alternate masses 

 and beds of black, red, jointed, and compact trap, and of a tough amygdaloid. The 

 only well-defined vein we saw about these rocks, was in the shaft, half a mile below 

 the cabins, about one and a half inches wide, with a wall-rock of red trap, and the 

 vein-stone siliceous without metal. 



Descending the East Fork to the falls, over a rough bed, the trap-rocks are most 

 of the way covered by drift. At the falls, there is a fine development of all the 

 rocks known in the Montreal River section. The thickness of the conglomerate is 

 not so great, for the reason that the elevating movement was not as extensive. The 

 upheaval of the Montreal River chain was more bold and broad than that of the 

 hornblendic rocks opposite these falls. 



1. 2. 



Sec. 1. — r, c. Red clay. s. Red sandstone, wilh thin bands of hard sandstone, a. b. Slaty and altered sandstone, three hundred feet 

 thick, c, c. Conglomerate, twenty to one thousand feet thick, d. Altered shaly sandstone, or brown slate, forty feet thick, e. Altered shaly 

 sandstone and conglomerate, sixty feet thick, t. Black, red, and amygdaloid trap, cli, eh, oh. Thread of stream, descent in cataracts, rapids, 

 and chutes, one hundred and sixty seven feet in half a mile. 



Sec. 2. — u. Thin-bedded sandstone, with few pebbles, b, b. Confused muss, all pebbles. 



A location was made, embracing these falls, by Mr. Wood, of Bad River, and 0. 

 M. Hyde, Esq., of Detroit. The trap at the head of the cataracts is well displayed, 

 resembling that of the Minnesota Mining Company, on the Ontonagon River. At 



