8 ' PAST AND PRESENT OF

sand hills. Some of these attain the height of forty feet and are covered with tufts of coarse beach grass. These are very inter— esting to the visitor. Another rare place to visit is the spot where a dark mass of Doler— ite comes through the sandstone at Hog Is- land, in Malpeque Bay. It is a volcanic rock, having been ejected from LlIC interior of the earth in a molten state. hardening and altering the strata with which it came in It is a dyke of diabase and cut the The erup—

contact. soft red sandstones in its way. lion must have occurred a great many years ago.

The boulder clay everywhere spreads. over the surface of the Island, making line. plable, loose. loamy soil. Scientists relate that it was formed by the Great Glacier. a moving sheet of terrestial ice which during a period of intense cold North America down to latitude forty degrees

covered

north. Granite boulders brought by the moving ice may be found in different parts of the Island. Morains were formed by the deposits of clay, sand and stones carried by glaciers. Some may be seen in Victoria Park, St. Peter’s Road and also in lot 63.

Accumulations of marsh and peat are found in swampy places formed by the decay of vegetable mater. Mussel beds in the bays and rivers formed by the accumulation of de: cayed shells of oysters. mussels. quahaugs, etc. prove very valuable fertilizers.

Euilding stone of good quality is to be found at the entrance of Charlottetown har— bor. along Tea Hill range and at Belfast and Small limestone beds exist of little value. Small quantities have been found at Callas Point and St. Peter’s Island of iron ore. manganese and copper. Further investigation by actual tests may reveal very valuable natural resources.

S< m ris.

.\ IIIS'I‘ORIL‘AI. SKETCH. BY A. B. \Vanni'li'rox, B. A.. D. C. L.. K. ('7.

The noble Gulf of St. Lawrence bore an unwonted burden on its fair bosom the aft— ernoon of 30th June, -\. D. 1534, the day when Prince Ideard Island smiled her wel— come to Jacques Cartier. first of white men to scan her shores. This was the great Bre— ton’s earliest voyage to the New \\'orld. and, until that summer afternoon, save the bark canoes of the Indians, his two small vessels, of some sixty tons each. were the first craft to plough the waters in the bight of Prince Edward Island.

Jacques Cartier was the earliest of the great French explorers of Canada, and the first European to ascend the St. Lawrence river. which he (lid on his second and third voyages, but with these expeditions this sketch has nothing to do. He was a man of

;

courage and resource. as well as of great force of character, qualities essential to one of his adventurous calling. With these he combined the skill of an experienced sailor and a practical knowledge of navigation, not surpassed by any of the seafaring men of his time.

In almost every walk of life, the closing years of the fifteenth century, and the whole of the sixteenth were rich in great and en— terprising men. In the earlier part of this long period it may almost be said that, in no field of activity. were there to be found more far—seeing and adventurous men than were those great navigators and explorers, whose discoveries changed the known face of the globe and resulted in an absolute revolution

in the conditions of the civilized world. And