Theory of rose coloured glasses

Calvert's parlour? There was no one on site to ask but based on maps on the Colony of Avalon website, I think it is.

One thing the settlers who started the Colony of Avalon didn't have to bring with them from England was stone for building purposes. There's an abundance of it anywhere on the island of Newfoundland. A recreative painting of the waterfront shows a massive stone warehouse made of locally procured rocks.

Captain Wynne wrote very favourably of local conditions to Calvert in 1622. He described woods and plains in the thousands of acres well furnished with ponds, rivers, fish and caribou. Oats, wheat, barley and beans were planted and doing well as were vegetables growing in the kitchen garden. They had a meadow of 3 acres from which they harvested hay to feed the cattle.

The climate in the summertime was warm and winter lasted from mid-January to the end of March.

Today the winter starts usually well before the middle of January and summers are short. While the land does support agriculture, most people I think would agree with me in saying that the Ferryland and surroundings is not a choice area for farming.

Maybe 1622 was an unusual year or maybe he was seeing the world through rose coloured glasses. Or, maybe things weren't all that great in England at the time. I would have trouble comparing our weather as favourable to the climate of England. Certainly, in England they are able to football all year round but not here. The weather is a constant source of conversation and most involves complaining about it. I think its what you make of it and it doesn't hurt to see the world through rose coloured glasses, just like the colonists of Avalon almost 400 years ago.

Tony :-)

Newfoundland is affectionately known as "The Rock". It comes by this name honestly.

Theory of settlement

Looking into Ferryland from beyond the rocks at the entrance to the harbour

Today I had an enjoyable paddle from Calvert to Ferryland with the plan to visit the archaeoligic dig there. Always intended to visit the site and today I took the chance to visit it by boat.

Ferryland is the site of a colony founded by George Calvert in 1621. He picked a site on the eastern most edge of Newfoundland that is for all intents, open to the North Atlantic. Next stop, Ireland.

The colonists set about constructing buildings to settle in. It was thought there was a potential for a fishery plus production of other goods such as timber, salt, hemp, tar and iron. Reports from the colony spoke favourably of the climate as "being better and not so cold as England". By the middle of the decade there were about 100 people in the colony. But life was not easy for the colonists and in 1626 Arthur Aston, Gouvernor of Avalon at the time, returned to England with all the colonists.

In 1828 Calvert, then Lord Baltimore, sailed to Newfoundland with his wife and family and 40 more colonists. But he became disenchanted with the woeful conditions in the colony and in 1632 obtained a new charter form the king for a colony in Chesapeake Bay, the site of the modern City of Balitmore, which was named for him.

So, Lord Baltimore's association with the Colony of Avalon was over. But, there are maps of Ferryland dating from 1693 indicating settlement continued and there was in fact a French raid on the colony in 1696 when the archaeological history ends. The original colony was forgotten and lay undisturbed for centuries until Dr. James Tuck started digging there in the 1970's.

I got out to take some pictures and thought that visiting the site by kayak was fitting. The Colony of Avalon was settled by people who came in boats so today I have that in common with those 17th century adventurers.

Tony :-)

Excavations at the Colony of Avalon. I found it interesting that the original colonists set up shop here in this location when you can see that modern day inhabitants of Ferryland have decided to build further back. There was no one on duty today to charge me admission. Understandable as who would expect visitors in March?

The excavation goes right down to the water. This must be where the colonists constructed a sea-flushed privey.

Stop for lunch. The wind was forecast to be light from the west but on the way back from Ferryland it seemed to come from an easterly direction, which made for a bit of surf.

What's a winter paddle without a picture of icicles? There's been lots of rain this year that seems to have fed a lot of icicles.

End of the paddle, wash up in fresh water. At this time of year I look for take-outs where there's fresh water nearby so that I can wash up "in the field". I find it a lot easier than having to get the hose out home.

Theory of deception

Well, where are we today? At the beach?

Yes, we would be if we were here sometime around 1.0 billion years ago. This is a close-up of a bed of conglomerate of the Signal Hill formation which outcrops along the eastern edge of the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland.

There are a couple of things these rocks tell us. First the red staining is from the mineral hematite, an oxide of iron. This means the rocks were deposited in a shallow water environment because when sediments are deposited in deep water they cannot oxidize as there's no oxygen. Second, the larger cobbles and pebbles indicate that there must have been fast moving water because slow meandering water doesn't have the energy to transport rocks of this size. Third the cobbles and pebbles appear to be well rounded, therefore they have been worked a bit in transportation as the sharp edges have been worn off.

As it turns out, in sandstone (finer grained rocks) above and below this conglomerate show signs of crossbedding so we can determine that they were laid down in flowing water and we can tell the direction the water was moving in. It is likely that these rocks were deposited in a delta type area with rivers flowing into it. Something like the Mississippi River delta today.

You can't see this type of detail of course from a kayak but I still like to do a little research and know something about the geology of where I paddle. I find the geology just as interesting as the wildlife. And, you don't need to be a geologist to appreciate the geology. Just the few things I've noted in this blog entry may help you identify interesting things in the rocks where you stop for lunch etc.

Tony :-)

Theory of car making

On the ferry to Bell Island for a paddle with my current mode of automobile

I remember the woes of the oil embargo in the early 1970's (I think 1973) that forced Detroit to make smaller cars. After those difficulties passed they started making big vehicles again. They made large vehicles because that's what people wanted. Fast forward to 2008 when gasoline prices spiked in Newfoundland at around $1.50 / litre. Sales of big gas guzzlers tanked again and now the Big 3 of Detroit find themselves in trouble again.

I think the car manufacturing sector and government should have said to the populace, small cars are better for you and therefore big vehicles won't be available for purchase anymore. No fair? Well, government legislates all sorts of things for our own good don't they?

The drop in demand for big vehicles coupled with a downturn in the economy has put me in a position where, as a taxpayer, I'm going to become hopefully a shareholder in GM. Shareholder hopefully in the sense I hope they don't just give away the money.

But I have to assume some responsibility for the Big 3's problems. I did a quick calculation of what I've contributed to their demise. Since 1973, when I bought my first (used) vehicle, I've spent approximately $19,000 on automotive transportation. That doesn't include purchase of vehicles for my wife but strictly what I drove myself. That works out to a whopping $525 per year.

If you don't make it at a reasonable price, I won't buy it.

Tony :-)

Theory of continental drift

Plate tectonic map by C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP project www.sco- tese.com

This is how the earth is thought to have looked like 514 million years ago. The Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland is positioned on the globe between "New England and Nova Scotia" and "England and Wales" where indicated on the map. Its more legible if you click to enlarge.

The Avalon Peninsula was part of what is known as "Avalonia". Its clear we've have drifted a considerable distance. In relation to todays world we were somewhere in the vicinity of South Africa. So, the rocks in the unconformity I posted in a blog entry last week were laid down in the southern ocean and through continental drift ended up in the North Atlantic.

The Avalon was part of Avalonia along with England, parts of Holland, Belgium and the Spanish peninsula and Morocco.

What is interesting to note is that Avalonia was part of a volcanic island arc something like Japan is today. The evidence for that is in the rocks of the Avalon Peninsula as the oldest rocks are of volcanic origin. The magma that fed those volcanoes is exposed on the surface now and is known as the Holyrood granite. Anyone driving along the Trans-Canada Highway between Butterpot Park and Holyrood can see the granite as pinkish outcrops.

Its hard to believe what interesting stories the rocks we paddle by can tell. I find it as interesting as the wildlife, scenery etc. Its all part of the same picture.

Tony :-)

Theory of light at the end of the tunnel

Pedestrian underpass under the 4 lane Outer Ring Road in St. John's, Newfound- land

Well, yesterday was March 1. For people who loath the winter, its the light at the end of the tunnel. A glimpse of spring on the horizon.

For me, I don't care if winter comes or goes. I'll take advantage of what it gives me. If it snows lots, I'll cross-country ski or snowshoe. If it gives no snow I'll skate on the frozen lakes or kayak.

How many people wish time away and live for the arrival of spring? Life is too short for that; I take it as it comes.

Tony :-)

Theory of unconformaties

Angular unconformity at Bacon Cove, Newfoundland between Precambrian and Cambrian sedimentary rocks representing a time gap of 10's of millions of year

An unconformity represents a time gap between two sets of geological formations. An angular unconformity occurs when the underlying beds are tilted from the horizontal, eroded for a period of time and new rocks are deposited on the eroded surface.

The beds underlying the conglomerate (coarse cobbles, pebbles and sand) layer are Conception group rocks that were laid down in the Precambrian. An exact age hasn't been determined because they do not contain fossils necessary to date them. They were laid down in a deep marine environment over a considerable period to reach a thickness of 7,000 feet. Uplifted, tilted, laid bare and eroded for 10's of millions of years, the sea eventually overtook the land and the Cambrian conglomerate was deposited. The Cambrian period began about 542 million years ago so that all happenned a considerable time ago.

What I find interesting is that over 542 million years ago there was sun shining on these rocks and what the would the world have looked like if I was able to stand here. There wouldn't have been any land vegetation or animals, just land and sea, waiting 542 million years for my visit.

Come to think of it, I have an unconformity in my life too. I completed a degree in geology in 1973, went on to make my living at something completely different and now have returned to something that was an interest many years ago.

Tony :-)

Close up of the Cambrian conglomerate. It looks like poorly poured cement. The large cobbles and pebbles indicates they were deposited rapidly in a shallow water or river estuary environment. I can surmise that because big rocks don't transport that far to deep water and because some are angular non-rounded. Rounding happens when the pebbles are worked by rolling so that the edges are worn off, and that takes time.