iQoo] Ami — Annual Address. 265 



fortunately possess about Ottawa, in shady as well as in sunlit 

 spots of the district, there are a thousand and one gems of beauty 

 in plant life awaiting- the keen observer in a delightful as well as 

 healthful pursuit. 



Turning our attention to the field of Geology in the Ottawa 

 district, a year has not passed since the Club was organized but 

 some discovery was rr,ade of some species or form unknown to 

 science, or in the tracing more exactly the trend of the 

 various geological formations which we have. The important 

 work done by the late E. Billings, and of the (ieological 

 Survey in the fifties, served as a basis for operation, and a 

 systematic table of the geological formations about Ottawa to- 

 gether with their characters, their fossils, the thickness of the 

 strata, and other interesting notes, giving a very comprehensive 

 and concise history of the district in pre-human times, is now 

 available for reference. Details in stratigraphv have been recorded, 

 and rare specimens of fossils discovered during the excursions o^ 

 the Club, many of which have proved of considerable value to the 

 Geological Survey department, have been recorded in the Trans- 

 actions of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club. Information thus 

 obtained by our members, who happened to be members of the 

 Geological Survey staff, has enabled the latter to describe with 

 greater degree of accuracy various geological features of the 

 Capital besides other portions ot Eastern Ontario, which have 

 come within the sphere of the Club's activity. In the field of 

 Geology there is yet much to be done. In the Archaean formations 

 alone, which are so well and extensively developed to the north of 

 our city, and from which mica, apatite, graphite, asbestus and 

 iron, as well as other minerals of economic value to men are ob- 

 tained, there is a wide sphere of research open to the geologist. 

 More especially in the sub-division of Petrography, or that science 

 which deals with the microscopical character and structure as well 

 as the origin of the rocks, is the field extensive and important as 

 well as interesting. We shall not understand the proper relations 

 of the various members of that great Archaean complex until a 

 careful study has been made of the numerous and varied rock 

 masses which are the oldest that we know in the earth's crust, and 

 which supplied the materials from which all the subsequent and 



