Section IV, 1891. [ 105 ] Tkans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



IX. — On tlie Geology of Part of the Province of Quebec, South if the St. Lawrence. 



By K. W. Ell!<, LL.D., F.G.S.A. 



(Presented by Mr. .T. F.Whiteaves, F.(i.S.) 

 (Bead May 27, 1801.) 



The discussion of the i)roblems presented in the study of thi- rock formations, found 

 in the province of Quebec, south of the St. Lawrence, has been carried on with consider- 

 able persistence for tlie last forty years. During this time the views of the different 

 observers, as presented in the several reports of the Greological Survey of Canada and in 

 other scientific publications have become almost classical in Canadian geology. It would 

 indeed be strange if, in all this long period, there should be no divergence of views as to 

 the age and relative positions of the different series of rocks then found. In fact we 

 could scarcely expect anything else than that, in the great growth of geological knowledge 

 within this period, such change of views should occur. 



The history of the various opinions held by the different writers on this subject has 

 been stated with more or less completeness by several writers.' There is none however 

 yet published which presents a complete statement of the latest views on the subject, 

 or the conclusions now held by those who have most recently worked out and mapped the 

 geology of the district. The latest publication on the geology of the (3-aspé peninsula is 

 found in the report of the Geological Survey for 1882, in which, liowever, the views of 

 structure now held, though briefly suggested, were not clearly enunciated. Sundry 

 other papers on portions of the district have, however, since that date appeared, among 

 which may be mentioned one by Sir "Wm. Dawson on the sponges of Métis, and also a 

 paper by Prof. Chas. Lapworth on the paleontology and geological sequence of the several 

 divisions of the Quebec group, piiblished in the 'Transactions of the Eoyal Society of 

 Canada,' 1880. This, while giving much information as to the horizon of many of the 

 fossils there found, and the relative positions of the several members of the group as well 

 as of the overlying and underlying formations, is also manifestly incomplete^ inasmuch 

 as the true order of succession had not then been fully ascertained, and also from the fiict 

 that the supply of material upon which the conclusions there stated were based was 

 insufficient and incomplete. To those who have not therefore studied the subject of the 

 Quebec group in all its bearings, and according to the latest developments of the question, 

 this paper of Lapworth's presents some points not wholly clear. Since its publication, 

 however, much additional evidence has been obtained, both from the large and carefully 

 arranged collection of fossils and from the working out of the stratigraphy over a very 



1 T. Sterry Hunt. see. 'Geol. Survey,' Penn., 1878 ; Jules Marcou, The laconic System,' 1885 ; Jules Marcou, 

 'Canad. Geol. ClassiBcation,' 1889 ; R. W. Ells,' 3rd An. Rep. Geol. Survey' Can., vol. ill, k. 



Sec. IV, 1891. 14. 



