174 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Bay (surveyed by Capt. H. W. Bayfield, 1822) seemed to strengthen 
these views; for while this plan revealed the western outlets of the river, 
coming out in a perfect labyrinth of bays, islands and rocky shoals, no 
notice whatever is taken of the eastern outlet, and the middle outlet was 
simply noticed as affording an exit for the water of a “large river.” 
The detailed and accurate survey of Mr. Alexander Murray, in 1856, for 
the Geological Survey of Canada, and the later detailed and special 
examination of Messrs. Clarke and Shanly, revealed the fact that the 
most westerly of the middle outlets of the French River was excellently 
adapted for the purposes of a terminal harbour. In 1875 Mr. Ridout 
made a careful survey of this outlet in connection with his work of 
exploration for the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The sound- 
ings then taken showed a straight channel not less than a quarter of a 
mile wide and thirty feet deep from the lake into the bay into which this 
outlet empties. In 1879 Mr. E. P. Bender made a detailed examination 
of the French River with regard to its practicability for canal purposes, 
in connection with certain explorations for the Canadian Pacific Railway 
Company, and, as an indication of the sheltered position of this harbour, 
mentions the fact that many of the pickets planted near the water's edge 
by Mr. Ridout were still standing at the time of his visit. At the instance 
of the Marine and Fisheries Department, four lighthouses have been 
erected. Two of these are situated in line on the Bustard Rocks, to the 
west of the Bustard group of islands. Another has been built on Lefroy 
Island near the western entrance of the bay ; while the fourth is situated 
on the eastern shore of the harbour itself, about a mile further north. 
The channel, though somewhat narrow, is straight and deep, and, with 
the lighthouses now in position, ought to be accessible to any of the 
vessels afloat on the great lakes. 
The country traversed by the Ottawa is more diversified than that 
along the second or Mattawa and French river section. For while the 
Laurentian rocks may be said to form the chief geological feature of the 
area, the hills at various portions recede from the river, and the valley of 
the Ottawa itself is at times occupied with the recent sediments, which 
sometimes extend for several miles on either side. This feature is more 
particularly seen along that part of the valley between the Chats Falls and 
the city of Montreal, the country on either hand often being nearly 
level or broken by low rolling hills, and occupied by flat lying beds of 
the Potsdam, Calciferous, Chazy and Trenton formations which rest uncon- 
formably upon the upturned edges of the Laurentian gneiss and limestone. 
At two points only in this distance do the Archean rocks cross the river, 
viz., at Rockland, twenty-five miles below Ottawa, and at Montebello, 
about twenty-five miles further east, where the characteristic crystalline 
rocks of the Laurentian show on the south bank of the river and are 
directly overlaid by the Potsdam sandstone. The banks of the river gen- 
