50 Natural History Society of Montreal, 



known in Europe of rocks of the same age. These are not prim- 

 ary rocks. They have been called so. But here in Canada you 

 have the merit of having first pointed out to the world that they 

 are stratified rocks, that they have been laid down by water, that 

 they shew beds of lime and saudstone laid down by w r ater, but 

 modified by subsequent changes. (Applause.) The knowledge 

 of this, of the age of these rocks, of their stratified formation, and 

 of their valuable minerals, is due to Canadian research. You 

 have demonstrated, moreover, the stratification of another set of 

 rocks, called here the Huronian, which had always formerly been 

 thought to belong to the supposed primary chaotic mass. You 

 have then your Laurentian and Huronian rocks, lying at tho 

 foundation of your geology, as monuments to your attainments iu 

 geological science. (Applause.) Then, with reference to the 

 fossiliferous rocks, you have already done so much, that I cannot 

 attempt to go over the ground. In the Trenton limestones, a 

 Canadian has brought to light those beautiful stone lilies which 

 grow in groups or forests beneath the sea. Your Anticosti too 

 has furnished us with new light in geology. The gap between 

 the Upper and Lower Silurian groups which we have been 

 endeavouring in vain to fill up, you have extended to many hun- 

 dreds of feet, teeming with the remains of ancient life. Again, it 

 just now occurs to me that while we in the United States have been 

 talking of fucoids, and trying to give names to fragments of 

 plants that we found stranded among our strata, it is you who 

 nave set us right. One of your number, the Presideut of this 

 Society, found us drifting out to sea upon sea-weeds, and has 

 brought us back, shewing that we had been dealing merely with 

 rootlets of a plant which belongs to the Devonian period in all 

 its course from its beginning to its end. This is another point in 

 which in Canada you are far in advance of other geologists^ 

 (Applause). I do not wish to depreciate what has been done by 

 my friends among ourselves on the other side, but these are cer- 

 tainly most encouraging steps which have been taken here in the 

 progress of geological investigation — and those I have mentioned 

 are not all. If I had time I could particularize many more. If, 

 for example, I turn to the economical results of your Survey — for 

 we must go to the soil or to the rocks for our economic materials 

 everywhere and always — then I feel bound to say that you have 

 done more than all our naturalists put together. (Applause.) 

 We have not in any of our collections such a variety of economic 



