82 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. 



NOTES UPON THE SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS OF 

 ONTARIO. 



By D. F. H. Wilkins, B.A., Bac. App. Sc. 



Since the publication of the Geology of Canada in 1863 and 

 the valuable papers of Prof. Chapman, Ph. D., L.L.D.. of Toronto, 

 in 1859 in the Philosophical Magazine, and in 1860 in the Ca- 

 nadian Journal, several interesting facts have been discovered re- 

 garding the superficial deposits as far as they have come under 

 the writer's observation in a few localities in Ontario. Thus at 

 Port Rowan, near Long Point, Walsingham Township, Norfolk 

 County, we have the following facts revealed. 



First. — As to the succession from below upwards. 



(1). An unknown thickness of blue calcareous Erie clay, 

 generally free from boulders and containing in its upper layers 

 a few leaf-impressions, apparently of the birch, the maple, the 

 elm and the poplar. The maximum thickness of this is said to 

 exceed five hundred feet, this thickness having been bored through 

 in 1866 in the vain hope of finding oil. As, however, the 

 soft gray marls of the Hamilton formation must occur about this 

 locality, Port Rowan standing nearly over the line between it 

 and the underlying Corniferous, it is possible that some of these 

 marls may have been penetrated. 



(2). About two feet of quicksand. 



(3). Twenty feet, on an average, of brown calcareous clay, 

 stratified, as also is (1), and destitute even of leaf-impressions. 

 It contains very many rounded Laurentian, (both Upper and 

 Lower.) and Huronian, fragments and angular fragments of the 

 Corniferous limestone holding its characteristic fossils. 



(4). About a hundred and twenty feet of stratified, lacustrine 

 sand, often containing grains of magnetite. It is almost desti- 

 tute of boulders and pebbles. 



Secondly. — As to the distribution of these. In proceeding 

 eastward from Port Burwell to Port Rowan the sand is seen to 

 lie at the surface, and in one or two places along the line of the 



