172 



REPORT OF THE GEOLOGICAL BRANCH FOR THE 



SEASON OF 1887. 



To the Council of the Ot/aiva Field-Naturalists Cllub : 



In presenting this the seventh annual Report of the Geological 

 Branch of tlie Club, the lea lers have much pleasure iu stating that 

 a continued and increasing activity has characterized the past season's 

 work, and that in many instances rare and interesting discoveries have 

 been made in the strata of rocks so developed in and about Ottawa. 

 This region, in which there has been a considerable number of workers 

 in geology for years past, nevertheless contains abundance of material 

 as yot unfouv}d, and only awaiting the keen and observant eyes of the 

 merabei's of this Club. 



As years go on this branch of the Club's work appeal's to develope 

 more and more, so that whilst a goodly number of our members are 

 actively engaged in working up the " Geology of Ottawa " in its inter- 

 esting details, the field is so vast and the materials so plentiful and near 

 at hand that there is room for a small army of geologists, such as our 

 city, from its natural position, could well produce, all of whom would 

 find ample scope for specialties in different lines of enquiry. 



Appointed by your Council, last spring, to lead the vai'ious parties 

 interested in geology at the excursions and sub-excursions of the Club 

 your leaders have striven to do their utmost in furthering the aims of 

 the Club in this direction, so that scarcely a single one of these excur- 

 sions was undertaken and conducted without one or other of the leaders 

 being present. 



Certain years often present advantages for working up definite fovm- 

 acions, and whilst the season of 1886 was particularly favorable to the 

 students of the Post-Tertiary, from the fact that the streets of our city 

 were excavated to depths ranging from eleven to eighteen feet for sewage 

 purposes, thereby exhibiting the glacial and post-glacial deposits, the 

 season of 1887 has seen the vice-regal ward opened up and cut through 

 to a considerable depth, exposing in a beautiful manner the perfectly 

 conformable contact of the Utica and the Trenton formations. The 

 former consisting of bituminous shales and alternating limestones, is 

 replete with exquisitely preserved fossil remains, many of which were 

 collected and jjroved new to this locality. 



