66 



These are only a few of the more salient proMeui.s to which reference- 

 will be made. 



It may not be thought arai^s to note first what has already been 

 .done in the field of research with which we have to deal. In the 

 "Geology of Canada," 1863, a report by Sir Wm. Logan and stafi" 

 there is a chapter on " superficial geology" in which a number of intei'- 

 esting notes are recorded from Ottawa and its environs, an examination 

 of which had been entrusted to Dr. E. Bell. Then comes the work 

 done in the Post-Pliocene geology of Ottawa by Sir J. A. Grant who 

 produced a number of valuable papers, some of which were published in 

 the United States and others here in Canada. At the mouth of and 

 along Green's Creek, six miles distant from the city, and a favourite 

 resort for students of Post-Tertiary geology, Sir J. A. Grant and Sir W. 

 Dawson made important discoveries. The collections of the late Dr. 

 E. Van Cortland show that he also devoted considerable attention to 

 these interesting deposits, whilst the late Mr. E. Billings in his Canadian 

 "Naturalist and Geologist" published notes on the same subject. The 

 above mentioned work was px'ior to the organization of the Field- 

 Naturalists' Club which has since vigorously pushed investigation in this 

 dii'ection. Nearly a score of members, have taken a more or less 

 active part m these researches, whilst the abundance of work and 

 material make it probable that greater attention will continue to be 

 paid to the deposits in question. The work done already is consider- 

 able; but there remains a hundred-fold more to do. Mr. Surtees, the 

 City Engineer, has been carrying on an extensive series of excavations 

 in all parts of the city. These excavations or trenches are dug or blasted 

 out to a depth ranging from eleven feet to eighteen feet six inches, so 

 that deep and interesting sections have been exposed. 



For the description of the Post-Tertiary or Post-Pliocene (Pleisto- 

 cene) deposits it is first necessary to ascertain whence the material 

 came which composes them, and in order to do this it is obviously 

 necessary to examine the older rocks of the district, and to see of what 

 their measures consist, and know the stratigraphical relations 

 existing between the various members of these older underlying 

 series. 



