10 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
tained several species of Leperditia. Whether these fragments had 
been derived from rock which may outcrop in the bed of the river 
near at hand, or had been transported from a distance it was impossible 
for me to determine in the time at my disposal. 
On Hayes river no outcrops of Silurian rocks could be found, 
but on a stream called Machichi river, eight miles east of the estuary 
of Hayes fiver, angular fragments of thin bedded limestone, similar 
to the Leperditia beds above mentioned, were found in abundance 
scattered over the bed of the stream and along its banks, indicating 
the probability of its occurrence in place in the immediate vicinity. 
East of Machichi river the next known outcrop of Silurian rocks 
is at Limestone Rapids on Severn river, where a heavy storm of rain 
and wind delayed us for a day. During that and on the following 
day when we were travelling up the Severn river, I collected many 
fossils, among which were representatives of 35 species already known 
from Silurian rocks elsewhere, 17 new species, and 34 species which 
could be referred to known genera though the material brought 
home was not sufficiently perfect for specific identification. The 
imperfection of the material was partly accounted for by the poor 
state of preservation of many of the fossils in the rock, but partly 
also by the fact that it was impossible for us to bring away more 
than a limited weight of material no matter how much we might 
collect. Many hundreds of miles of unknown country lay ahead 
of us that autumn before we would reach the outskirts of civilization 
at Graham on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway; our necessary food, 
clothing, and bedding had to be carried in canoes, and after these 
things were aboard there was very little room for anything else, 
and besides there were only two places throughout the length of the 
journey at which supplies could be even partially replenished. In 
addition to these conditions everything, including the canoes, had 
to be carried on the men’s backs over an unknown number of portages 
between those portions of the river and lakes which were navigable 
for canoes. The total number of these portages proved to be 103 
with an aggregate length of 28 miles which of course had to be crossed 
with loads several times. Indian canoemen will carry canoes, food, 
blankets, or ammunition without a murmur, but they strongly object 
to carrying “‘stones’’ collected in the country. Finding that we had 
a little more ammunition than we should be likely to need I quietly 
left some of it behind, filled the ammunition bag with fossils, put 
some fossils in our bedding, and carried some without any attempt 
at secrecy, but nevertheless our carrying capacity was limited, and 
in many cases, when a species was large, it was often impossible to 
take with us more than one specimen, no matter how many had been 
collected or how abundant they were in the rock. 
