16 The Ottawa Naturalist. [April 



arm of the Atlantic which advanced up the St. Lawrence trough 

 and into the Champlain valley long before it reached Montreal 

 or Ottawa. In the later part of Chazy time, however, there was 

 a shallow bay extending as far up the Ottawa valley as Allumette 

 Island, while deeper water existed at the same time about 

 Montreal. At the end of Chazy time the land was tilted, so that 

 the sea was forced to retreat eastward and the interior sea again 

 reached the Ottawa region, this time coming- across west of the 

 Adirondacks. In this sea were deposited the Lowville limestone 

 and shale, 125 feet thick at Ottawa. In Lowville time this sea 

 does not seem to have extended very far east of Montreal, and 

 its advance into the region east of that place was accompanied 

 by the erosion of the upper beds of the Chazy. 



In Black River time this same sea continued to advance 

 down the St. Lawrence till it broke through into the Atlantic, 

 and in the limestones formed at this time we find a mixture of 

 inland and Atlantic types again. 



Although the general facts of the subsequent history of the 

 region are known, the details are still so obscure that no attempt 

 was made to present maps showing the local conditions 



Persons interested in a further study of this subject are 

 referred to Prof. Schucherts' great work on the Paleogeography 

 of North America, published as a bulletin of the Geological 

 Societv of America in 1910. 



MEETING OF BOTANICAL BRANCH. 



Held on Jan. 28th at the home of Mr. Geo. H. Clark, the 

 following members being present, in addition to the host: 

 Messrs. Whyte, W. T. Macoun, Michaud, Malte, Campbell, 

 Sirett, Bunting, Carter, Blackader and Groh. 



On assembling the company first examined some roots of 

 ginseng which had been collected at Wakefield, Que., and were 

 shown by Dr. Blackader. This plant is rare in the Ottawa 

 district, but some of the members were able to report its former 

 occurrence in localities close to the city. 



Mr. Clark spoke briefly about large sets of representa- 

 tive Canadian seeds which have been put up by the Seed Branch, 

 and about certain recent developments in Canadian vegetable 

 seed production. 



The subject for the evening was, "A Forest Flora in the 

 Making"; in other words, a report on a botanical survey of a 

 plantation of Scotch and Austrian pines at the Experimental 

 Farm. It was presented by Mr. H. Groh. who made the observa- 

 tions during the past summer. The plantation in question is 



