1916] The Ottawa Naturalist. 51 



and evenly over a similar distance. Although it has heretofore 

 been stated otherwise, the textures of the phenoclasts, in^most 

 of the stratified and unstratified glomerates examined by the 

 writer, have been found to be slightly different from the matrix. 

 This tends to show that the sediments forming the phenoclasts 

 and the cement were not derived from the same horizon. It is 

 only reasonable to suppose that this lack of homogenity be- 

 tween the phenoclasts and their cement is intimately connected 

 with their history. The writer believes that subaquatic-gliding 

 -deformation is undoubtedly a good theory to account for the 

 production of intraformational phenomena, btit that its applica- 

 tion in the case of the intraformational limestone glomerates is, 

 according to the present data, extremely limited. 



Unstratified and EdcxEWise Conglomerates. 



Of all intraformational glomerates, probably the so-called 

 edgewise variety is the most notable in the field. Edgewise 

 glomerates are apt to have their structure well developed 

 by differential weathering, and the striking arrangement of 

 the phenoclasts has caused several students of the sedimentary 

 rocks to offer an explanation as to their origin. Probably the 

 two leading hypotheses regarding the origin of these special 

 glomerates are those of Hahn, and Walcott, previously men- 

 tioned. The writer believes that certain edgewise conglomerates 

 which he has seen owe the explanation of their origin to Wal- 

 cott's theory, although it is possible that edgewise breccias may 

 be formed under the conditions postulated by Hahn and Grabau. 

 Certain thin-bedded glomerates whose phenoclasts are but slight- 

 ly abraded, probably owe their origin to such conditions as those 

 observed by Walcott (12) at Noye's Point, Rhode Island. 'I 

 noticed that when the tide went out before daylight, the layer of 

 fine sand and mud, exposed to the dry wind and sun during the 

 day, hardened, and that when the surface of the water of the 

 incoming tide was broken by small waves, the hardened layer 

 was lifted, broken into angular fragments and piled, in some 

 places, to a depth of several inches; while in other places it was 

 simply turned over and was very little disturbed. . When much 

 disturbed, the edges of the fragments were rounded, so as to 

 give them the appearance of having rolled a considerable dis- 

 tance. In one instance, the ensuing out-flowing tide deposited 

 a thin layer of sand and silt over the brecciated fragments." 

 From these observations it is evident that should the same 

 phenomena occur on a sinking shore line, glomerates of the char- 

 acter so often met with by the field geologist, would be formed. 

 When there has been a special heaping or sorting of the pheno- 

 clasts by marine currents, we should expect to find true "edge- 



