102 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



giving way to tlie action of the waves. From the same canse are to 

 be seen detached peninsular masses in a tottering state, which now 

 and then assume grotesque forms. There is something peculiarly 

 interesting in this singular group of islands, lying so isolated about 

 the centre of the great Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and curiosity would 

 be well repaid by a visit from one of the neighbouring ports. (See 

 outline of Bryon Island, plate v.). 



2. — Cavekns and Arched Rocks at Perce, Gaspe. 



On the eastern coast of Gaspe, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there 

 is a range of limestone clifPs, which commence on the south-west 

 side of Mai Bay, at the perforated rock, called He Perce, and thence 

 run in a north-north- west direction. Immediately south of these 

 cliffs, which are six hundred and sixty-six feet in perpendicular 

 height above the level of the sea. as described by Bayfield, are the 

 Perce mountains, the highest of vv^hich. Mount Perce, is twelve thou- 

 sand and thirty feet, and is visible forty miles out to sea. 



The town of " He Perce," as it was called in Charlevoix's time, 

 occupies the shores of Perce Bay, running from Point Perce to Wliite 

 Head. This writer mentions in the second volume of his " Histoire 

 de la ISTouvelle France," p. 71, that Sir William Phipps, in his ex- 

 pedition against Quebec, landed at He Perce, in Sept., 1690, pillaged 

 the town and robbed the church. 



A reef connects the Perce Rock with Point Perce. This remark- 

 able perforated rocky islet, which gives the name of Perce to tliis 

 locahty, is two hundred and ninety-nine feet in height, precipitous 

 all round, and bold to seaward. This islet and the island of Bona- 

 venture are considered outliers of the conglomerate rocks which 

 enter into the formation of the main land at Perce, the former would 

 seem especially to be a continuation of the range of cliffs on the 

 south-west side of Mai Bay.* The Split Rock is an almost in- 

 accessible mass of this strata, and stands up like a mall, in con- 

 tinuation of the limestone-cliffs of Barry Cape (Point Perce) . It is 

 five Imndred yards long, one hundred broad, and is remarkable for 

 the presence at its western half of two large holes or arches, through 

 one of which a sloop at full sail can pass at high water. There is a 

 lateral arch at the north-east side, scarcely perceptible from the 

 water. 



The perforations in this rock have been formed by the action of 

 the Avaves of the sea, the same cause which has in the progress of 

 time offoctcd the disjunction of these outliers from one another and 

 tlic main land. From the present position of the islet, wliich lies 



* Rotl> islands ai'e composed of the great mass of conglomerate, belouging to 

 tho lower carboniferous series, which here caps the Devonian rocks, and is made up 

 t)t"p(.«l)l)los of all the rocks, from the old Laurentian of the north shore of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence to the Devonian.. — Professor Dawson's " Week in Gaspe." 

 Cauad. Nat. and Geol. Oct., 1858. 



