60 



Canadian Record of Science. 



of these beds, that 'hey belong to the Quebec Group of Sir 

 W. E. Logan. This is, however, now known to inchide, on 

 the Lower St. Lawrence, beds ranging from the Calcifeious 

 to the Trenton, and the beds are so much plicated that it is 

 often diflScult to unravel their complexities of arrangement.' 

 At M^tis, the evidence of the pebbles in the conglomerates 

 indicates that they are newer than the Middle Cam- 

 brian, and the few fossils found in the sandstones and shales 

 would tend to place them at or near the base of the Ldvis 

 division, or approximately on the horizon of the Chazy, or 

 equivalent to the English Arenig. Lapworth, in his paper 

 on " Canadian Grraptolites," suggests that the sandstones 

 holding Retiolites are older than this ; but hitherto we 

 have not found at M^tis the characteristic Graptolites of the 

 older or Matane series, which occurs further east, and is 

 probably of Calciferous or Tremadoc age. 



In the past summer, Dr. Harrington, F.G.S., was so for- 

 tunate as to find a bed of black shale rich in remains of 

 sponges, hitherto unknown in these rucks, and having made 

 known the fact to the writer, we visited the place several 

 times and made considerable collections of these interesting 

 fossils, which are now in the Peter Redpath Museum. 



The locality of this discovery is the beach at the foot of 

 the cliff below the Wesleyan church, where a considerable 

 thickness of black shales appears well exposed. The section 

 at this place is as follows, in descending order: — 



1. A thick bed of hard sandstone or quartzite and con- 

 glomerate, forming the cliff immediately in front of the 

 church, and shewing in some of the beds radiating mark- 

 ings (AstropoUthon). 



2. Black and dark gray shales, with a few calcareous 

 bands — thickness about 100 feet. The black shales of this 

 band hold sponges and layers of sponge spicules, with fucoids 

 {ButhotrepMs, of a new species,) and valves of a small Oho- 

 lella. All of these fossils are usually in a pyritised state. 



* Logan, Geology of Canada, 1863; Selwyn, Eeport Geol. Survey, 

 1877-78 ; Ells, Ibid, 1880-82 ; Lapworth, Canadian Graptolites, Trans. 

 R S. C, 1886. 



