NEWFOUNDLAND. 
15S 
beins: continued across from the one to the other. I think 
there is httle doubt that the opposite sides of the Narrows 
had once been joined. A rapid river runs into the harbour. 
The harbour itself, previous to the formation of the Nar- 
rows, may have been a lake. The river appears to have 
been once much larger. By the action of the sea withont, ' 
and af the river and lake within, the rent or chasm by 
which the river formerly emptied itself into the sea, may 
have been gradually enlarged, till it has attained its present 
size. The average width may be two or three hundred 
yards. Quidi Vidi (pronounced KUty-vHty) River and 
Lake may one day present an entrance and harbour similar 
to those of St J ohrfs. 
The mineralogy of the country round St Johrfs is 
very simple. The first rock, on entering the Narrows, 
is trap-tuff. This rock is distinctly stratified, each stra- 
turn generally measuring two or three feet in thickness. 
The strata he NE. and SW., or rather NE. by N. and 
SW. by S. The dip is to the NW., at an angle of from 
70° to 80°. The basis of this rock consists chiefly of dis- 
tinct grains of quartz, felspar, and a red clay stone. The 
imbedded minerals or pebbles are, for the most part, of the 
same substances ; felspar, common and compact, the latter 
with small imbedded grains of quartz ; quartz, often of a 
slaty or fibrous structure ; jasper, red clay stone, bloodstone^ 
hornstone, &c. These imbedded minerals, at the foot of 
the hill or cliff (particularly the quartz and felspar), are 
generally from an inch to three inches in diameter, and 
gradually decrease as we ascend ; at the top of the hill, 
they rarely exceed the fourth part of an inch in diameter. 
Does not this fact countenance the mechanical deposition 
of the trap-tuff This rock appears much harder than the 
common varieties of the trap- tuff which I have seen. 
It is this rock which forms those precipitous cliffs on 
