Cape Breton's Magazine

somewhat stretched and distort? ed by later folding and tecton? ic activies in the earth's crust--but you can still see the remains of them as white seams running across the rock. This is a bedrock outcrop. When we're talking about a bedrock and we're talking about an out? crop, we mean a piece of rock that's fixed to the centre of the earth. It's not a loose stone that can be rolled or moved or has been in some other way transported to its present position. We mean a piece of the stable rock below all the sediment, and below all the other material that's lying on top of it. It's a piece of the crust. And it keeps on going from there all the way down.... This just happens to be the last gasp of it. It's nice that you can see it when you get to the end of the trail. This is Bedrockattho the beginning of the wide river valley. If you look downstream, you see all these boulders lying across the river valley. And from here on down, it basically main? tains a very low rate of descent. We're only about 50 feet above sea level here, although we're some 10 kilometres into the Highlands. But in the next 10 kilometres, it's going to drop 400 metres off the end of the trail. Note the lighter colour in the slate is volcanic ash. Highland plateau. So it's much more a mountain stream. Now, what, this must be like in the spring flood, I don't know. Terrific to watch.... Copies of Rob Raeside's article, "A Talk on Rocks: An Intro? duction to Cape Breton's Geology," in issue 62, are still availa? ble from Cape Breton's Magazine, Wreck Cove, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia BOC IHO. DiSCOVERJT! l"llUll'"DbD""04"u4 d'y' of Canada-where 18th-century villagers and turn-of-the-century inventors were on the edge of the ocean and on the edge of discovery. Walk through the mighty French Fortress of Louisbourg. Meet two of North America's most famous inventors at the Alexander Graham Bell and Marconi National Historic Sites. Discover Cape Breton Island - Nova Scotia's Masterpiece - for yourself. Call our toll-free number today and receive your free 1994 Getaway Guide.