1869.] HUNT — GEOLOGY OP SOUTH-WESTERN ONTARIO. 11 



quite modern, reminded me of the quantities of precious strings 

 of wampum laid up in some ancient graves of Indian babes in 

 British America, and which remain after the furs, no doubt 

 clothing the bodies, have decayed. A higher phase of our 

 humanity is represented by these remains than by the inventions 

 of the Patent Office — tlie love that survives the death of its 

 object, and which, in the absence alike of human philosophy and 

 Divine revelation, preaches with a force stronger than sense and 

 mere reason, that the loved one " is not dead but sleepeth," and 

 will awake in another worM, whither affection can follow it only 

 by decking its poor remains in the best robe and burying it with 

 the most costly treasures. Such faith in the Indian mother may 

 be very simple and ignorant ; but it is surely a better and holier 

 thing than that cold skepticism which, while grovelling in a base 

 selfishness, looks up in its higher flights of reason and imagination 

 to tell us that man is but a better kind of brute, an aggregate of 

 blind material forces. 



NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTH-WESTERN 

 ONTARIO.* 



By T. Stekry Hunt, LL.D,, F.R.S., of the Geological Survey of Canada. 



The paleozoic strata of the southwestern portion of the pro- 

 vince of Ontario (late Upper Canada), are generally covered by 

 a considerable thickness of clay, which has made their study ex- 

 tremely difficult. During the last few years, however, numerous 

 borings have been made over a wide area in this region, in search 

 of petroleum, and have disclosed many facts of geological interest. 

 By frequently visiting the localitiis, and carefully preserving the 

 records of these borings, I have been enabled to arrive at some 

 important conclusions as to the thickness and the distribution of 

 the underlying Upper Silurian and Devonian strata, to which I 

 now beg to call the attention of the Association. 



The rocks of the New York series, from the Oriskany sandstone 

 to the coal, which are regarded as the equivalents of the Devonian of 

 the old world, were shown by Prof. James Hall, in 1851, to consti- 

 tute three natural groups. Of these, the first and lowest, some- 



* Read before the meetina; of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vaucemeut of Science, at Chicago, August, 1868. 



