166 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



7. — PiLLAE Sandstones, North Coast of Gaspe, 



There is a small fishing station below St. Anne, on the North 

 West Coast of Gaspe in the River St. Lawrence, which is called 

 Tourette, from the occm^rence of two pillars in the rocks of the coast 

 formed by the action of the sea. The deposits in this vicinity con- 

 sist of sandstones associated with bands of red and black argillaceous 

 slates which belong to the Sillery group of the Middle Silurian 

 formation. From atmospheric influences, the rock as described by 

 Sir. Wm. Logan* becomes fretted and pitted by deep holes or cells 

 of various sizes and shapes, with thin but well marked divisions 

 between them. The stone is soft, and appears to wear fast ; and 

 when the strata are vertical, or nearly so, the action of the sea 

 between high and low water marks cuts them into pillars thirty feet 

 in height, and four or five across, which, being sometimes smaller at 

 the base than the summit, produce a very picturesque efiect in the 

 surrounding landscape. These pillar sandstones, as they are called, 

 occupy the greater part of the coast between Cape Cha,t and the 

 small settlement of Little Matan, where they disappear. Mr. Mun^ay 

 mentionst that they are displayed in considerable thickness near 

 Little Metis, and occupy the coast as far as the Great Metis River, 

 when red and green shales appear, which occupy the coast as far as 

 Rimouski. This rock has the same tendency to wear away into 

 pillar like shapes, when the strata are highly inclined, and the same 

 kind of cellular fretted surfaces are observed to occur here as at 

 Turettes and Cape Chat. Somewhat similar natural objects are seen 

 on the south shore of New Brunswick, on proceeding from Dipper 

 Harbour towards St. John, in the form of deep chasms and hollows, 

 often separated from each other by large grotesque columns. The 

 carboniferous limestone rocks here being of unequal hardness, yield 

 to the sea at one point, and resiwst it at others ; hence the rudest 

 fig-ures and most unsightly pinnacles are placed according to the 

 taste of the most disordered imagination. 



8. — Niagara Caverns, 



Of the four spots in the immediate vicinity of the Niagara Falls 

 which receive the name of caves, but one only is present on Canadian 

 territory, situated a mile and a half below the falls, halfway between 

 Clifton House and the suspension bridge. It Avas at one time called 

 the Hovil's Hole, but is now known as Bender's Cave, and is a 

 natm-al excavation in the finely gTanular magnesian limestone, 

 full of geodes lined with pearl spar, which here belongs to the 

 Niagara limestone formation, hence sometimes called geodiferous 

 limestone. A ledge of rock, twelve feet below the summit of the 



* Gcoloi^-ieal Survey of Canada, Ro])ort for IS L-i. 

 t Geological Survey cU'Cauada, Report for 1S45-»J. 



