50 The Ottawa Naturalist. [June-July 



numerous examples from the Cambrian to the Miocene, bringing 

 out the interesting fact that the intraformational structures are 

 to be found at all stages of the earth's history. He does not 

 distinguish, however, between kinds of sediments in which these 

 folds and breccias are developed, and whether or not they were 

 formed under fresh or salt water. It is interesting to note that 

 Hahn builds his hypothesis upon the observation of the move- 

 ments and deformations of lake deposits and clays. Grabau, 

 likewise, cites examples of deformation in the Miocenic marls 

 of Oeningen. He shows two photographs of this clay folded 

 in this way, in neither of which has the writer been able to ob- 

 serve any signs of true brecciation, or such brecciation as was 

 supposed to have taken place in the formation of the edgewise 

 conglomerates at Bellefonte, Gaspe peninsula, and Trenton 

 Chasm. In short, the tightly closed and delicately delineated 

 folds, so beautift;lly illustrative, are very typical of the sub- 

 aqueous solifluction of clays. Whether or not this peculiar type 

 of folding is to be found in limestones is open to question. 

 The writer has observed such folds in clays and delta deposits, 

 but he has not seen any signs of true brecciation. It 

 is possible that many of the Pleistocene, and even older occur- 

 rences, may be of glacial origin, They appear to be rather 

 typical of clay deposits and glacial rock flours. In the case of the 

 Devonian examples of intraformational breccias from the Cape 

 Bon Ami limestones of the Gaspe region, we have a contorted 

 and brecciated bed made up of alternating layers of shale 

 and limestone, which, as described, is similar to those found 

 at Trenton Chasm. It seems a somewhat strange coinci- 

 dence that while subaquatic solifluction is postulated as 

 having taken place, in most instances, in a more or less homo- 

 genous type of deposit, that in such localities as Gaspe, Trenton 

 Chasm and elsewhere it should be confined to that portion of 

 the strata in which there is a variation in the constitution of 

 the sediments deposited Although the writer fully realizes 

 that the above cited facts may not be fatal to any hypothesis 

 regarding submarine-gliding-deformation, yet, as the evidence in 

 these cases tends very strongly to prove an alternative hypo- 

 thesis, it must be scrutinized with some care. Although some 

 "edgewise conglomerates" may be due to submarine slumping, 

 it is difficult to conceive that the majority of intraformational 

 breccias are the result of this process. Certain of the intra- 

 formational glomerates are of wide geographic extent, and of 

 great stratigraphic regularity, although of great thinness. It 

 is perhaps easier to conceive of a more or less horizontal, mud- 

 cracked flat or tidal estuary than it is to conceive of a sub- 

 marine slope, along which "slumping" had taken place regularly 



