45 



ON THE OCCUKRENCE OF " PHOSPHATIC NODULES" 

 TN THE CHAZY FOPvMATION ABOUT OTTAWA, 



CANADA. 



By Heury M. Ami, M.A., F.G.S. 

 Ill the Apiil number of the Ottawa Naturalist Mr. Sowter has 

 an interesting article on the Chazy formation at Aylmer, Que., in 

 which he records some valuable discoveries made respecting its strati- 

 grai)hy and palseontology. One statement made in this paper, however 

 (p. 21), requires a few words of explanation, and that is, regarding the 

 occurrence of those " phosphatic nodules " at Hog's Piack, in Nepean, 

 Ont, svhich I had observed in the summer of 1884, and described 

 March 4th, 1885, at one of the Club's winter Soirees. 



Mr. Sowter remarks that " during the past season these ' nodules ' 

 have been examined and recognized as very diminutive members of the 

 Brachiopoda and Lamellibranchiate, as yet unclassified," adding a foot- 

 note regarding certain organic-like forms which he compares with 

 Fasceolus glohosus of the Trenton. 



I am quite astonished indeed at Mr. Sowter's conclusions resulting 

 from an examination made of the nodules which I discovered in 1884, 

 at Hog's Back, in the Chazy formation. To begin, I am not aware that 

 Mr. Sowter has ever even seen a single one of the " phosphatic nodules " 

 which I described, and had that gentleman desired or asked to see them, 

 he would never have arrived at bis conclusion. Moreover, in order to 

 ascertain definitely the minute structure and characters of these 

 " nodules," which were in the cabinets of the Geological Museum, Mi-. 

 We.iton very kindly ])repared careful microscopic slides of them, and the 

 sections soon revealed that they were truly " phosphatic nodules," and 

 very akin to those described and figured in the '' Report of Progress of 

 the Geological Survey of Canada" for 1876 (page 433). Mr. Weston 

 recognised them as such immediately, having already prepared a great 

 number of such from difterent formations. 



As to the occurrence of " diminutive Brachiopoda and Lamelli- 

 branchiata," these have been observed at several localities before. 



In further corroboration of the fact that "phosphatic nodules " are 

 met with in the Chazy formation, the following extracts from the 



