166 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
7. — Pillar Sandstones, North Coast of Gaspe, 
There is a small fisliing 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 pillar.s in the rocks of the coast 
formed by the action of the sea. The deposits in tliis vicinity con- 
sist of sandstones associated with bands of red and black argillaceous 
slates wliich 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 ai'e 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 effect in the 
suiTounding landscape. These pillar sandstones, as they are called, 
occupy the gTcater part of the coast between Cape Chat and the 
small settlement of Little Matan, where they disappear. Mr. MuiTay 
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 fi'etted 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 fi'om 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 resist it at others ; hence the rudest 
figures 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 was at one time called 
the Devil's Hole, but is now known as Bender's Cave, and is a 
natural excavation in the finely granular 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 
* Geological Survej' of Canada, Eoport for 1814. 
t Geological vSurvey of Canada, Report for 184-5-6. 
