174 THE CANADIAN NANURALIST. [Vol. ix. 



results Bailey, Matthew, and Hartt in New Brunswick, and the 

 writer in Nova Scotia, have also borne some part. (2) The 

 establishment of the Quebec group of rocks as a series equivalent 

 in aoe to the Calciierous of America, and to the Arenis; and 

 Skiddaw of England, and the elucidation of its peculiar fauna. 

 (3) The tracing out and definition of the peculiar faulted junc- 

 tion of the coastal series with that of the interior plateau, ex- 

 tending from Quebec to Lake Champlain. (4y The definition 

 in connection with the rocks of the Quebec group, by fossils and 

 stratigraphy, of formations extending in age from the Potsdam 

 sandstone to the Upper Silurian, as in contact with this group, 

 in various relations, along its rano;e from the American frontier 

 to Gaspe ; but the complexities in connection with these various 

 points of contact and the doubts attending the ages of the several 

 formations have never yet been fully solved in their details. 

 (5) The identification of the members of the Quebec group and 

 associated formations with their geological equivalents in districts 

 where these had assumed different mineral conditions, either 

 from the association of contemporaneous igneous beds and masses, 

 or from subsequent alteration or both. It is with reference to 

 the results under this head, the most difficult of all, that the 

 greater part of the objections to Sir William's views have arisen. 



Let us now shortly examine Mr. Selwyn's new results, with 

 reference to these conclusions, especially to the last. 



The first point deserving of notice here is the inability of Mr. 

 Selwyn to recognize in the extension of the Quebec group east- 

 ward and westward of Quebec, those subdivisions which have been 

 named the Levis, Lauzon, and Sillcry. Originally Sir William 

 recognized two divisions only, the Levis and Sillery. Subse- 

 quently he introduced, on the ground merely of convenience, the 

 intermediate Lauzon : though apparently not regarding the three- 

 fold division as at all important, but merely as provisional^ 



Of those subdivisions the most important is the Levis, 

 which forms the fossilifeious and most readil}' recognized horizon 

 of the Quebec group. About the precise base of this division, 

 held to be the lowest of the group, there is some uncertainty, 

 Sir William has referred to it as resting on Potsdam rocks in 

 the vicinity of Lake Champlain, and farther east on older shales 

 and limestones; and Mr. Richardson has endeavoured to separate 



* Report of 1866, p. 4. 



