WOODMAN: GOLD-BEARING SLATES OF NOVA SCOTIA. 39i : 
•enough known to determine how much of the sediments originally 
deposited have been lost by erosion. Lower Carboniferous con¬ 
glomerate near Gay’s River contains metamorphosed slate and whin 
with fragments of the attendant quartz veins; and undoubtedly its 
gold is also derived from them. The older rocks at the contact with 
the conglomerate show a much denuded surface, with rounded 
projections, in appearance like small roches moutonnees, and about 
four feet long. From the structure of the neighboring slates it 
seems probable that a great amount of the erosion had taken place 
before the lower Carboniferous was deposited, and that the propor¬ 
tion lost since that time is relatively small. 
It cannot be determined yet whether the older rocks were above 
water during most of the time between their first folding and the 
era of the conglomerates, but this seems probable. Debris from 
the gold series has not been recognized in younger sediments, except 
in boulders of the age just mentioned. But if the auriferous rocks 
were submerged during the intervening period, or even during any 
considerable portion of it, we find it necessary to account for the 
disappearance of all the sediments that were laid down, not only 
over the area of o-old rocks as now seen, but also over the territory 
occupied by such Carboniferous strata as lie directly upon the gold 
formation. 
In a large measure the present topography was produced by 
pre-Pleistocene denudation. Drift has determined details in the 
course of many of the streams, but the main features were there 
before ice over-rode the land. In many places, as at Moose River 
and Cow Bay, the peneplain level is preserved. For miles the 
rock is within a foot or two of the surface, covered with a loamy 
soil or a growth of Sphagnum and other moisture-loving plants, 
whose presence is due to the sluggishness of the drainage. In 
others, as the region about Waverly, an uplift, which appears to 
have occurred since the peneplain was formed but before the Pleis¬ 
tocene epoch, has allowed the etching of broad waterways. The 
place just mentioned lies in a north-south valley which is the high¬ 
way for a chain of lakes and connecting streams flowing northward 
across the peninsula to the Bay of Fundy. East of the junction 
between lakes William and Thomas, steep hills rise from the 
water’s edge to a total height of 240 feet, the average being 190 
feet. West of the lakes the faulted areas are low, scarcely more 
than fifty feet above the water at any point. Still farther west 
