NEW    BKUNSWICK,    NOVA    SCOTIA,    NEWFOUNDLAND,    ETC.       505 
month  are  to  be  regarded  as  more  metamorphosed  members  of  the 
Lower  Silurian  slates  or  are  still  older  deposits  remains  uncertain. 
Granite  is  found  in  several  places  in  the  region  in  large  masses  pro- 
jecting through  the  slates  and  quartzites,  and  adjacent  to  the  granite 
these  rocks  are  replaced  by  gneiss  and  mica  slate  or  other  more  highly 
metamorphosed  rocks.  The  metamorphism  of  the  rocks  must  have 
occurred  prior  to  the  Carboniferous  period,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  granite  rocks  have  been  the  agent  in  effecting  it,  if  they  are 
not  themselves  portions  of  the  stratified  beds  completely  molten  and 
forced  up  by  pressure  against  and  into  the  fissures  of  the  neighboring 
unmelted  rocks.  Whatever  view  is  taken  as  to  the  age  of  the  granitic 
rocks,  it  is  certain  that  they  are  strictly  Hypogene — that  is,  they 
belong  to  deep-seated  foci  of  subterranean  heat  and  are  not  superficial 
products  of  volcanic  action,  but  were  probably  at  one  time  deeply 
buried. 
Campbell,47  in  1863,  divides  the  gold-bearing  slates  into  a  lower  or 
quartzite  group  and  an  upper  or  clay  slate  group. 
Hind,48  in  18G9,  finds  in  the  Waverly  beds  of  the  gold-bearing  rocks 
obscure  fossils,  which  are  regarded  as  evidence  that  these  rocks  prob- 
ably lie  near  the  base  of  the  Lower  Silurian,  perhaps  being  the 
equivalent  of  the  Potsdam  or  lower  part  of  the  Calciferous. 
Hind,  9  in  1870,  describes  the  series  of  gneissic  and  granite  rocks 
which  are  said  to  extend  as  an  interrupted  axis  from  the  Gut  of  Canso 
to  the  Tusket  Islands.  These  have  heretofore  been  regarded  as  erup- 
tives,  because  dikes  of  granite  are  frequently  found  in  the  quartzites 
which  are  supposed  to  be  Silurian,  and  also  fragments  of  quartzites 
and  slates  are  embedded  in  the  granites  near  the  contacts.  It  is,  how- 
ever, concluded  that  the  granite  is  a  sedimentary  deposit  resting  un- 
conformably  below  the  slates  and  quartzites.  The  chief  proof  of  the 
aqueous  origin  of  the  granitic  rocks  is  the  abundance  of  water-worn 
pebbles  and  bowlders,  not  only  near  the  junction  of  the  quartzites  but 
remote  from  these  rocks.  These  pebbles  are  symmetrically  arranged, 
showing  the  dip  of  the  gneiss.  They  are  often  smooth  and  rounded, 
but  masses  of  schists  are  also  contained  which  do  not  present  rounded 
edges.  The  granites  or  gneisses  are  seen  to  break  through  the  gold- 
bearing  series  in  many  places,  but  they  are  regarded  as  brought  up  by 
faulting;  but  in  certain  places  on  the  line  of  the  Halifax  and  Wind- 
sor Railway  the  gneisses  were  in  a  plastic  state  when  the  uplift  took 
place,  for  veins  are  found  squeezed  into  the  cracks  and  interspaces  of 
the  thinly  bedded  golcl-bearing  rocks. 
The  sequence  of  formations  is:  Upper  Silurian,  Lower  Silurian. 
Cambrian  or  Huronian.  and  Laurentian.  The  Upper  Silurian  is  a 
series  of  argillites  estimated  at  0,000  feet  thick.  The  Lower  Silurian 
consists  of  micaceous,  schistose',  and  corrugated  black  -kites,  and  are 
estimated  to  have  a  thickness  of  12,000  to  15,000  feet.     The  gold- 
