Section IV., 1884. [ 241 ] Trans, Roy. Soc. Canada, 



ABSTRACTS, 1884. 



I. — The Geolocjy and Economic Minerals of Hudson Bay and Northern Canada. 



By Robert Bell, M.D,, LLC, C.E., Assistant Director of the Geological Survey, 



(Read May 23, 1884.) 



Since the reading of this paper before the Royal Society, the author has been named 

 as the scientist and medical ofBcer to accompany the Government expedition to be sent to 

 Hudson Bay during the present summer, and as he will then enjoy rare opportunities for 

 obtaining new^ information in regard to the geology of these regions, he considers it best 

 to give only the following abstract of his paper, and to defer the publication of the map 

 which accompanied it until a future time, when fuller details may be given. 



The paper contained a sketch of the geology of those great tracts of the Dominion 

 stretching northward from the organized proAànces into the polar regions, and which 

 may be properly designated Northern Canada. With reference to the country around 

 Hudson Bay, the author's remarks were based entirely upon his own observations. In 

 regard to the Northwest Territories his information was derived partly from his own 

 explorations and partly from the journals of earlier travellers, while the geology of the 

 Arctic regions was taken from the maps and writings of the scientific men AA^ho had 

 accompanied the various expeditious of discovery to the northern seas. In illustration of 

 the paper, a map of North America was exhibited, on which the avithor had colored the 

 distribution of the rock-formations, as far as known up to the present time. The char- 

 acter and extent of the successive divisions were then described in their chronological 

 order, beginning with the oldest. 



Hitherto it had been customary to represent the geographical area^of the main body 

 of the Laurentian system as consisting of two wide arms extending north-eastward and 

 north-westward from the great lakes, but it might be more correctly described as of a 

 somewhat circular form, including Greenland, which appears to be mostly Laurentian. 

 Hudson Bay lies in the centre of the Laurentian area of the mainland, but its shores are 

 fringed to a considerable extent by newer rocks. 



It was evident, as Dr. Bell shewed by his geological map, that the distribution of the 

 Huronian series was intimately connected with that of the Laurentian, being found 

 mostly within the general limits of the latter. The rocks of this system appeared to rest 

 conformably upon the Laurentian in all cases which he had observed. The Huronian 

 might be characterized as the great metalliferous series of Canada. The largest areas of 



Sec. IV., 1884. 31. 



