THE 



CANADIAN 



NATURALIST AID &EOLOG-IST. 



BY E. BILLINGS. 



Volume L DECEMBER, 1856. Number V. 



ARTICLE 'KlNll.— On the Tertiary Rocks of Canada, with 



some account of their Fossils. 



The Tertiary Rocks of Canada are supposed to consist of two 

 divisions, the " Glacial Drift," or simply the " Drift," so called 

 because its materials have been either wholly or in part trans- 

 ported or drifted from the north, and the Lawrencian Formation, 

 which takes its name from the St. Lawrence, it being extensively 

 developed in the valley of that stream. The glacial drift is also 

 known by the name of the " Boulder Formation," on account of 

 the great number of boulders or loose blocks of stone it contains. 



The drift constitutes the principal portion of those vast beds of 

 clay, sand, gravel and loose stones that may be seen almost 

 every where, not only in Canada, but also spread out over all the 

 northern regions of Europe, and a part of Asia. Of all the 

 geological formations this is the most remarkable, and although 

 more universally diffused than any other in those countries where 



