95 



and origin in the States which are known to afford natural gas, even 

 there do we find questions of detail and structure coming in which pre- 

 vent anyone from making the rash statement that it does or does not 

 occur here. For example, whilst it is well known that the Trenton 

 formation in several places yields natural gas nevertheless, it does so 

 when the limestones of that i-ock-formation are dolomitic (Prof. Orton), 

 which character we know does not apply to the Trenton as it is de- 

 veloped about Ottawa. It is also a remarkable fact that, besides the 

 thiee great faults or dislocations indicated by Sir Wm. Logan (" Geology 

 of Canada, 1863 ") which affect the geological structure of the rocks here, 

 there are large numbers of smaller ones which constitute a more or less 

 parallel series of breaks of great importance in working out the geo- 

 logical structure of the country, and which act as so many chimneys or 

 openings whence natural gas may have been escaping for ages past, had 

 the strata ever been impregnated with this substance. Whilst the 

 writer would be pleased to see natural gas occurring in large quantity 

 and easy of access for manufacturing and other purposes, and whilst 

 there are many points occurring in the geology of Ottawa which make 

 it desirable that borings be made to ascertain if gas really does occur 

 in paying quantities ; nevertheless, the result of his researches lead 

 liini to conclude that there are undeniable evidences which point to 

 the likelihood of gas not occurring in quantity about Ottawa. A bore 

 sunk through the Hudson River, Utica and Trenton formations would 

 soon reveal the fact of its occun-ence, yes or no. 



Should natural gas be struck however, the formations which would, 

 from their peculiar composition, be most likely to afford that useful 

 material are the Utica and Trenton formations. These two are highly 

 bituminous. (See table.) 



The following table has been prepared with a viewof giving at aglance 

 and in chronological order the different rock formations met with. It 

 does not by any means piofess to be exactly accurate, still it has been 

 drawn up from the evidence ol)tained in the field at the excursions and 

 sub-excursions of this Club. 



These rock-formations divitle themselves into three grand natural 

 divisions as they may be seen in the field, belonging to three different 

 ages or epochs of the earth's history : 



I. Post-Tertiary or Post-Pliocene. 

 II. Cambro-Silurian oi- Ordovician. 

 III. Laurentian or Archsean. 



The local development of the second division, viz., Cambro-Silurian 

 system include a series of formations which succeed one another in per- 

 fect unbroken sequence from the Hudson River formation above to the 

 Potsdam s ndstone below. Fur reason.s, palseontological and stratigra- 

 phical, which it is not within the province of this paper here to discuss, 

 the writer has placed the Potsdam and Calciferous formations along 

 with the other overlying series into the Cambro-Silurian System, rather 

 than class them along with the Cambrian System. 



