238 Specks of Seal, — Post-pliocene of Ottawa River, 



ARTICLE XXXYIII. — Notice of the remains of a species of Seal, from, 

 the Post-pliocene deposit of the Ottawa River, — By Professor 

 Joseph Leidy, M. D. 



(From the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.) 

 " E. Billings, Esq., of Ottawa, West Canada, recently sent to the Academy, 

 for the inspection of its members and for description, a specimen consisting 

 of a slab or portion of a concretion of indurated clay, containing some 

 imbedded bones, which Mr. B. observes, in a letter accompaming the speci- 

 men, ' appear to him to be those of the extremities of a small animal of 

 aquatic habit.' Mr. B. further states, ' the specimen was discovered by 

 Mr. Peter Mc Arthur, in a bed of blue clay containing boulders and marine 

 shells and fishes. The locality is in the township of Gloucester, county of 

 Carleton, Canada West, about nine miles east of the City of Ottawa. From 

 this city the river Ottawa runs easterly for about sixty miles, in a channel 

 excavated through a bed of the glacial drift, composed in some places of clay, 

 and in others of sand, gravel and boulders. Where the specimen was 

 discovered, the bank of the river is of clay about thirty feet high, at the time 

 of low water. The water washes out of the bank numerous nodules of the 

 clay, which are consolidated into a pretty hard kind of stone. Many of these 

 nodules, when split open are found to contain shells, or the skeletons of fishes, 

 often beautifully preserved. The species of shells found up to the present 

 time are Tellina groerdandica, Mytilv.s edulis, Saxicava rugosa, and a small 

 rostrated one like a Leda ; and of fishes two species, Mallotus villosus and 

 Vyclopteris lumpus. They also contain leaves of trees, broken twigs and 

 grass, showing that there was land at no great distance. There is a ridge 

 of low metamorphic hills on the north shore of the river, extending for a 

 great distance parallel with and near the stream. On the south side the 

 coimtry is level, and underlaid with lower Silurian rock, Utica slate, Ti'enton, 

 Black Eiver, Bird's-eye and Chazy limestones, with here and there a strip of 

 the lower rocks brought up to the surface by undulations. I think there 

 was an ancient valley excavated in those rocks before the period of the drift, 

 that it was filled up dm-ing that period, and that the river is now cleaning 

 it out again.' 



The bones referred to prove, on examination, to be those of the greater 

 portion of the hinder extremities of a young Seal, but whether of a species 

 distinct from those now found living in the neighboring seas, is a question 

 only to be determined by careful comparison with the corresponding parts of 

 the recent animals. The soft distal extremities of the tibia and fibula are 

 crushed together. The bones of the ankle and foot are well preserved, but 

 the epiphyses of the latter are separated and only partially developed. The 

 matrix in the vicinity of the bones, is marked by the impressions of the hairs 

 and skin, which enveloped them. 



" Sir W. E. Logan, in a report on the " Geological Survey of Canada/* 

 (1850, '51, p. 8,) refers the deposit in which the above described specimen was 

 found, and similar deposits of the St. Lawrence and its tributaries, to the 



