136 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXII. 



A Manitoba Lizard. I have been very much 

 interested in Seton's List of Turtles, Snakes and 

 Batrachians of Manitoba. The following may be of 

 interest : 



On June 15, 1918, Mr. Mcintosh, from the 

 staff of the city schools here, and I made a 

 trip to the big larch swamp about 1 5 miles east 

 of Brandon. In order to prevent fire running we 

 chose a site in a gravel pit in which to build our fire 

 for dinner and I threw my coat on the hot sand while 

 we were preparing the meal. When I came to look 

 at it there was an undoubted lizard basking in the 

 sun on top of the coat. It would be, I should say, 

 about seven inches long, striped and somewnat 

 bronze in color, rather darker than I have usually 

 seen in what I took to be the same species in the 

 East. I suppose it was Sceloporus undulaius, or 

 what in Ontario we called the Swift. I wanted to 

 secure it but we thought we would take a description 

 first and while Mr. Mcintosh was looking for his 

 book it darted into the folds of the coat and the 

 most diligent search failed to locate it. 



B. J. Hales, Brandon, Man. 



On the chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus). 

 A specimen of this species of fish was lately re- 

 ceived from the Canadian Fishing Company, Van- 

 couver, B.C., by the Fisheries Branch of the De- 

 partment of Naval Service, for examination; and 

 the undergiven are a few of the features of the 

 specimen: 



The colour is black on the top of the back 

 blending into bluish over which are a series of 

 blackish streaks, which extend little below the 

 lateral line, leaving the sides and all the under part 

 of the fish silvery the first dorsal fin is about as 

 high as long, and has seven spines preceded by two 

 isolated spines (although the species is described as 

 possessing in all a first dorsal with nine spines) the 

 second dorsal fin is composed of rays, apparently 

 preceded by a spine, but the character of this fin 

 has become obscured, and the fin is followed by 

 some five finlets the anal fin is preceded by an 

 isolated very small spine and composed of rays, 

 apparently preceded by a spine, but as in the second 

 dorsal the character in the specimen is obscured; 

 and the anal fin is followed, as in the case of the 

 second dorsal, with some five finlets the maxillary 

 bone reaches to the front of the pupil of the eye ; 

 the jaws are beset with very minute teeth. The 

 specimen is a male, fourteen inches in length. 



The following is the geographical distribution of 

 the Chub Mackerel (which has a much wider range 



than the Common Mackerel of the Atlantic) as 

 given in my Chec\ List of the Fishes of Canada : 

 Widely distributed in the Atlantic and Pacific 

 oceans; extending as far northward as British 

 Columbia, Labrador, and England ; abounds off 

 the coast of California, in the Mediterranean, and 

 everywhere in Japan. 



Andrew Halkett. 



Chert used by the Indians as material for 



ARROW heads, etc., FOUND IN THE OTTAWA 

 VALLEY. In Mr. Keele's article on "The Location 

 of Towns and Villages in the Ottawa Valley", in 

 the October number of this journal (p. 69), he says 

 the "flint" used for the manufacture of arrow points, 

 etc., found in the Ottawa valley, probably "came 

 either from Welland county on Lake Erie or from 

 Flint Ridge, Ohio." Chert, commonly called flint, 

 of which most of the arrow heads, spear heads and 

 other chipped artifacts were made by the Indians in 

 Ontario, is known to occur in the local Black river, 

 and Chazy formations, and it seems reasonable to 

 suppose that the Indians would use local supplies 

 mstead of bringing chert from such a distance. 

 Until a few months ago, however, the only known 

 place in the Ottawa valley, where chert had prob- 

 ably been quarried by the Indians, was at the 

 Narrow locks, dividing the upper and lower Ridsau 

 lakes. Here Dr. Beeman, of Perth, found "what 

 was evidently an open-air workshop, as the shore 

 for yards was covered with flint chippings," and 

 the chert "could be obtained on an island but a 

 short distance from this point."* Last fall I found 

 a handful of scattered chert chippings imbedded 

 in the footpath along the north bank of the Rideau 

 river, west of the Canadian Pacific railway bridge 

 (Prescott division). I also saw a large nodule and 

 some seams of chert, of the same colour as the 

 chippings, in situ in the outcrop of limestone at the 

 head of the rapids on the opposite bank. I picked 

 up a few chips of the same material on the south 

 bank east of the bridge. Now, the presence of these 

 chippings and the chert in situ, so close together, 

 leads me to believe that the material found here was 

 quarried by the Indians, but, the operations were 

 probably by no means as extensive as those at the 

 well-known quarry near Point Abino, in Welland 

 county, Ontario. 



W. J. WiNTEMBERG, OTTAWA. 



*Beeman, Dr. T. W., "Lanark County," Annual 

 Archaeolosical Report and Canadian Institute 

 (Session IS'Jl), Toronto, 1892, p. 1.5. 



The December, 1919, issue of The Ottawa Naturalist rvas mailed on Feb. 3, 1919, 



