TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 719 



10. On the Occurrence, Localities, and Output of the Economic Minerals 

 of Canada. By William Hamilton Mebeitt, F.0.8. 



In this paper an endeavour -was made to collect from the maps of the Geological 

 Survey the numher of localities where the various economic minerals found in 

 Canada are situated, and the geological formation in which the occurrences exist. 



From the trade and navigation returns, and the annual mining report of Nova 

 Scotia, the mineral output for the past year has heen compiled in order to show 

 the present condition of mining industry in Canada. 



The lack of encouragement and assistance to mining industry from the non- 

 existence of any department in the Central Government for collecting reports and 

 statistics on mining was alluded to forcibly. 



The paper was accompanied by a list of the principal localities of the economic 

 minerals of Canada, and the geological formation in which they occur. This list 

 showed that indications of valuable ore8 are very numerous and widespread from 

 Newfoundland on the Atlantic to British Columbia on the Pacific Ocean. The 

 chief yield is shown to be from coal, gold, iron, gypsum, apatite and copper. 



It was also pointed out that it was not intended to convey the idea that the 

 different minerals were limited to the localities mentioned. They ought more to 

 be looked upon as a few indications of an exceptionally large mining development 

 which is hopefully looked forward to in the near future. 





FRIDAY, AUGUST 29. 



The following Papers and Report were read :— 



1. Phases in the Evolution of the North American Continent. 

 By Profesor J. S. Newbeeey, M.J). 



As the day had been assigned to papers bearing on the ice period, Dr. Newberry 

 limited his remarks to the condition of North America during the Tertiary and the 

 Glacial age. He exhibited a map of North America on which the areas where 

 glacial debris or inscriptions had been found, were coloured white. This showed 

 that more than half of the Continent in the Glacial epoch was covered with per- 

 petual snow or ice. The margin of the drift area passed from Newfoundland by 

 George's Bank to Cape Cod, thence traversed the middle of Long Island, crossed 

 Staten Island near its southern extremity, and New Jersey near Trenton. Thence 

 it was deflected northward through Pennsylvania, forming an angle in the southern 

 part of "Western New York, thence passing diagonally across Ohio to Cincinnati, 

 reaching (as recently shown by Prof. G. F. Wright) into Kentucky, thence running 

 north-westerly or westerly through the States of Indiana and Illinois into Missouri, 

 whence it followed nearly the course of the Missouri Eiver to the Canada line. 

 All the country included in and north of this semicircle has been glaciated, its 

 topography profoundly modified, and the surface of a belt surrounding the Canadian 

 Highlands 2,000 miles in length by nearly 500 in breadth, covered with a sheet of 

 debris which after much erosion is still from 30 to 50 feet in thickness. 



On the mountain ranges of the West, conspicuous evidence of glacial action is 

 visible as far south as the north line of New Mexico. These phenomena afford 

 conclusive proof of the reality of the ice period, and that the present climate and 

 physical conditions of Greenland reached in that age as far south as New York and 

 Cincinnati. The elevation of the Continent was at that time less than at present, 

 since the Champlain Clays — the fine material ground up by the glaciers and washed 

 down to the ocean — reach the sea level about New York. At Croton Point -on the 



