174 On the Mineral Springs of Canada. 
probable that the sand and mottled clay formation, commencin 
as it does from the white limestone, was continued up toa peri 
contemporaneous with the formation of the oldest Gnathodon 
beds, such as that at Twenty-one Mile Bluff, which evidently 
rests upon the last of the clay series. And from thence we have 
or data the succession of the shell formation in question, extend- 
ing through perhaps the post-pliocene and alluvium period, ex- 
hibiting a pretty regular series of geological events, even to the 
present time. 
Arr. XVIIL—On the Mineral Springs of Canada; by T. 
Hunt, Chemist and Mineralogist to the Geological Commission 
of Canada. No. IIL. 
In two previous communications to this Journal, I have given 
descriptions and quantitative analyses of several mineral waters 
which had been described in the Annual Report of Progress of 
the Geological Survey of Canada for 1848-1849. The following 
are a continuation of the same series of researches and appear 
in the Annual Report, 1849-1850. For the plan of analysis pur- 
sued, I refer to the previous articles which appeared in vol. viil, 
364, and vol. ix, p. 266. 
Varennes Springs.—'Vhese sources are upon the southern bor- 
der of the St. Lawrence, about seventeen miles below Montreal, 
and rise through strata, which, though concealed by the tertiary 
clay of the valley, belong either to the upper portion of the Utica 
slates or the lower beds of the Loraine shales. They are pleas- 
antly situated about a mile and a half below the church of Va- 
rennes, at the base of a little ridge which runs along at a small 
distance froin the shore, and bounds a fine tract of meadow land. 
A century ago they were greatly resorted to, but of late years 
have fallen into unmerited neglect. 
he springs, which are two in number, are very similar in 
their sensible properties; the outer spring, which is distant about 
a hundred rods from the house that encloses the other, is the one 
generally resorted to for drinking, and is called by the villagers — 
by the way of distinction the “Saline,” while the spring within 
the house, from the immense quantity of carburetted hydrogen — 
which it evolves, is known as the “Gas Spring.” Within about 
ten feet from this, is another well, but the water has the same — 
level and temperature as the last, and is said to belong to the — 
same basin pe 
The water in the outer well is about eight feet deep; it rises 
quite to the surface and is limpid and slightly sparkling; from 
