DE. EOBEET BELL: PEESIDENTIAL ADDEESS. 13 



Lake "Winnipeg and York Factory, Albany Eiver near the junction of the Etow-i-mami, 

 east of Wabigoon Lake, Atik-Okau, or Antler River, west of Lac des Mille Lacs, Slate 

 Islands, Gros Cap near Miehipicoten, north of Batchawana Bay, Quinze Eapids Ottawa 

 River, Opazatika and Abittibi Lakes. Considerable deposits of siliceous iron ore occur at 

 Little Pic River on Lake Superior, but there is reason to suppose that the rocks at this 

 locality are of a different age. In addition to metallic ores, the Huronian System yields 

 other minerals or rocks of economic value, such as roofing slate, bxxilding stones and 

 flagstones, serpentine and limestone marbles, ornamental granite and syenite, soapstone, 

 asbestos (chrysotile) quartzite for glass-making, iron pyrites, etc. 



While rocks of igneous origin constitute a marked feature in the Huronian System, a 

 large proportion of it is made up of those of an undoubted sedimentary character. On the 

 other hand, it is questionable if the great bulk of the Laurentian rocks can be proved to 

 have been deposited from water. It is supposed by many that the foliation of much of 

 the gneiss may have been produced by pressure and some kind of flowing movement in 

 an igneous mass. Whatever view we may take of the origin of the common Laurentian 

 gneiss, which forms the surftice of the country over such a vast extent of the Canadian 

 half of North America, the commencement of the Huronian period marks a great change 

 which then came over the earth — a change characterised by wide-sj)read volcanic out- 

 bursts, and by evidence of the existence of water (perhaps the first) on the surface of the 

 globe, and of certain progress in the building up of the aqueous deposits which has been 



