QUEBEC GROUP IN GEOLOGY. als! 
A careful and unprejudiced microscopic study of many of our Eastern Township rocks 
will, I have no doubt, support the views now adyanced respecting their origin, which, as in 
the case of those of North Wales, was first arrived at as the result of careful stratigraphical 
study in which the author took an active share in North Wales in 1847, and in Canada thirty 
years later. 
The microscopic examination of the Canadian rocks is being carried out in a most pains- 
taking manner by Mr. Frank Adams of the Geological corps, and, so far as they have gone, 
his observations lend decided confirmation to the views I have expressed. In any case, the 
examination will throw considerable light on the question of the character and origin of 
these ancient metamorphic rocks. 
As regards the age of this metamorphic group, though I have already said that it is 
probably Huronian, the evidence perhaps scarcely warrants the assertion of anything 
further than that it distinctly underlies the Potsdam. It may represent some lower part 
of the Primordial or Lower Cambrian. Sandstone and red argillites are largely mixed with 
the upper or volcanic belt, while hydro-mica slates, quartzites, crystalline dolomites and 
eneissic rocks are more characteristic of the lower axial portion. No fossils have been found, 
in any part of it, though associated with it, there are several folded in outliers of 
plumbaginous black slate, which the fossils show to be of Trenton age. This absence of 
fossils, however, is a feature it has in common with what has been called the Upper Copper- 
bearing rocks of Lake Superior by Logan; the Keeweenian and Aminiskie, by Hunt; 
and the Nipigon group, by Bell, but which are, I believe, now proved to be older than 
Potsdam, and newer than Huronian. 
In the Eastern Townships the upper “ volcanic group” may represent the Keeweenian, 
and the lower hydro-mica slate series the Huronian, but without the unconformities which 
exist in the Lake Superior region, and in a much more disturbed and altered state —a 
physical condition which appears to have prevented the recognition of the fact that their 
origin is in all respects similar or analogous to that of the Lake Superior series, and as 

they apparently both occupy the same geological interval, there seems no reason whatever 
for supposing them to differ greatly inage. In support of the idea of the Huronian age of 
the lower part of the metamorphic group, it may be stated that we find in New Brunswick 
and in Nova Scotia a very similar series of crystalline schists, which are quite uncon- 
formably overlaid by unaltered Lower Cambrian black slates, containing a characteristic 
primordial fauna. 
I have alluded to certain areas within the fossiliferous belt in which also no fossils 
have been found, and which have all been mapped as troughs of Sillery sandstone. 
The true relation of these to the fossiliferous dark slates and sandstones is not easily 
determined. They generally form a rough, stony country, and consist of coarse red and 
green sandstone, interstratified with red, green, and occasionally grey or black flinty 
slates. Their position is, I believe, generally below the true Levis formation. In some 
places, however—Metis, Cap Chat, and St. Anne—perfectly similar sandstones have 
afforded fossils (graptolites and brachiopods), and cannot well be separated from the over- 
lying limestones and conglomerates. 
The sandstones are very irregular, and often pass on their strike into the red, green, 
or dark slates. They probably occur at several horizons. To the south-west, in Milton, 
