GIBB — ON CANADIAN CAVERNS. 



163 



almost nortli and soutli, I am disposed to consider its northern aspect 

 as the oldest, the two arched openings at that side forming what 

 were once the entrance to deep caverns rnnning into the rock 

 southwards, which in the course probably of ages has been washed 

 away by aqueous denudation. This view is strengthened by an ex- 

 amination of the intervening shores as they exist at present, which 

 are poi-ti-ayed in the diagram (plate vi.). It will be perceived that the 

 coast line of He Perce runs along to Bonaventui'e Island, mth an 

 imaginary position of the land at one time between the south-west 

 part of the latter island and the shore at the Bay of Perce, at the 

 point where the cliffs commence at its southern third. This gives 

 the southern coast a semicii^cular course, with a low shelving beach 

 corresponding to that which now exists at Perce Bay on the one side, 

 and the western coast of Bonaventure on the other; whilst the 

 northern coast is rocky and precipitous, probably pierced with many 

 caverns, and gradually diminishing in height to the southward. 



3. — Gothic Arched Recesses at Gaspe Bay. 



The south-western shore of Gaspe Bay — from Point Peter to 

 Douglass Town, a distance of twelve miles— consists of a succession 

 of precipitous headlands, which in some places are two hundred feet 

 above the sea. Going southward from Seal Cove, a part of the cliffs 

 is composed of greenish-grey or drab-coloured pebbly sandstone, with 

 many beds of conglomerate. In these beds dark red shale-balls 

 exist, which yield to the weather and the beating of the sea, and 

 leave large holes in the cliffs. The conglomerate beds, which belong 

 to the Portage and Chemung groups of the Devonian or old red 

 sandstone formation, are described as harder and more resistant to 

 these influences and the irregularity in the wear of the rock, of which 

 the dip is at an angle of sixty degTees, produces recesses and arches, 

 giving the precipice the appearance of a piece of Gothic architecture.* 

 From Point Peter the land rises in undulations to the chain of moun- 

 tains, which lie about five miles in land. They attain to an elevation 

 of fifteen hundi'ed feet, and sweeping round Mai Bay, terminate with 

 the Perce mountains, previously mentionedc 



4. — The " Old Woman," at Cape Gaspe. 



If a line is drawn in a north-north- east direction across Gaspe 

 Bay from Seal Cove, it will touch a remarkable headland, or finger- 

 shaped promontory of Gaspe limestone, called Cape G aspe, which is 

 the termination of a magnificent range of cliffs, six hundred and 

 ninety-two feet above the sea. Close to the south-east extremity of 

 the Cape was the " Old Woman," or Flower Pot Rock, sometimes 

 called " Ship's Head" by the fishermen, and formed in a similar 

 manner to the Flower Pot Bocks of the Mingan Islands. It was a 



* Geol. Survey of Canada. Report of Progress for 1844. 



