^S^ Maurice Expedition. 15 



immediate consequence to our present object to determine ; 

 our o«ily desire is to point out the positions in 'which those 

 rocks are found, and the nature of the materials of which 

 they are composed. 



Having thus given a summary sketch of the rocky 

 strata, it becomes our next business to describe the general 

 direction of the mountain belt now under examination. 

 At the falls of the Shewanahegan the mountain formation 

 may be said to commence. This range runs in a direction 

 towards the River Ottawa ; and from all the information 

 obtained, passes between the Lake Masquinongc and the 

 River St. Lawrence ; running a few miles in the rear of 

 Montreal, until it joins those hills which branch off near 

 Grenville towards the east north-east. The country 

 lying at the foot of these hills, between Three Rivers and 

 the Ottawa extending to the River St. Lawrence, as well 

 as that flat district forming the north shore of the Ottawa 

 from the mouth of the River aux Lievres to the Lake of the 

 Two Moiintaitis, is, generally speaking, a good description 

 of land, and bears fuie timber. In this vast extent of low 

 land, are found horizontal beds of limestone, containing 

 remains of organized beings ; and in some places there 

 exist beds of a yellowish loamy clay. A great part of this 

 tract is strewed with bowlders of various sizes ; consisting 

 of sienite and sienitic granite, similar to the rocks which 

 form the hilly barrier to these lowlands. The bowlders 

 being found scattered over the stratum of secondary 

 limestone is in unihon with what Professor Buckland met 

 with in many parts of Kuropt- ; and tln'ir occurrence in 

 America is (pioted by that able geologist as a coMhrmation 

 of the fact, that the habitable portion of the world, in all 

 quarters, haa undergone a second and very recent general 



