CXXII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



of the material brought allowed. In this way lists have been made and 

 kept for future reference and use. Amongst the interesting localities 

 from which fossils were obtained during the yast year, Mackay's or 

 Hemlock Lake may be mentioned. From the marine sands underlying 

 the shell-marl deposit as well as the fresh-water gravels immediately 

 underneath the shell-marl deposit, a number of rortlandia arciica have 

 been obtained. The specimens are usually small and in some respects 

 suggest Portlandia minuta. However, this boreal variety of Portlandia 

 arctica would scarcely be obtained in a series of sediments which were 

 deposited at the close of a period of marine submergence, it would rather 

 be found in the earliest deposit of the same period. 



The Utica shales, which were excavated in the vicinit}' of the Isola- 

 tion Hospital, ha.ve yielded an abundance of interesting forms, whilst 

 the Trenton bluffs about Ottawa still teem with organic remains, many 

 of which are no doubt undescribed. There is great need now of a series 

 of continuous sections, carefully measured and described, prepared from 

 the numerous and varied outcrops of these formations within the Ottawa 

 district. 



At the excursion to Casselman, along the line of the Canada 

 Atlantic Railway, the geological section descended the valley of the 

 South Nation River below the railway bridge to a point where the river 

 takes the turn westward, and specimens of Trenton (Ordovician) fossils 

 were obtained from the numerous outcrops of the limestones along the 

 right bank. The species have been determined and lists kept for re- 

 ference. Besides these, about thirty small pieces and fragments of 

 pottery were obtained from the old camping ground and village site of 

 the aborigines of this country. Portions of pots and also of celts were 

 collected with bits of charred wood and bark and charcoal, together 

 with numerous bones, or rather fragments of bones, probably of some 

 of the deer tribe. Some of the charred wood and bark found buried 

 in the newest formation just below the turf, or even held within the 

 interlacing fibres of the roots of the turf growing at this locality along 

 the riverside, appear to indicate some forest fire that took place long 

 ago, whose charred remains are now found buried quite as deep as the 

 sherds or bits of pottery. It would lead one to suppose further or draw 

 the conclusion that this forest fire must have taken place at some period 

 when the aborigines were settled in the locality visited, a time probably 

 remote from the present by several hundreds of years. 



The markings on the pottery are very similar to those observed on 

 the pots from the to^vnship of Eardley, in Quebec, north of Lake 

 Deschênes, which area was inhabited during pre-historic times by the 

 Hurons as well as the Iroquois, as various writers on the subject admit. 



