6i0 REPORT— 1897. 



by Dean Conybeare in mockery of the old despotic rule of the name Greywack^. A 

 golden age of truth and reason, and slow but secure inductive logic, seemed to 

 follow, but the jovial days of a new dynasty are to spring up, it seems, under a 

 new name not less despotic than the one which had ruled before it. If all the 

 [sedimentary] rocks below the \_Olenellus zone] are to pass under one name, let us 

 cling to the venerable name Greywack^. It can do no mischief while it describes 

 things indefinite, simply because it is without meaning. But the name [Algonkian], 

 if used in the same extended sense, is pregnant with mischief. It savours of a 

 history that is fabulous ; it leads us back to a false type ; it unites together as one 

 systems that nature has put asunder.' 



The following Papers and Eeports were read : — 



1. Some Typical Sections in South-western Nova Scotia. 

 By L. W. Bailey, Ph.D., University of Neio Brunswick. 



The sections figured and described in this paper are intended to represent, in 

 summarj'- form, the results of recent investigations, made under the direction of 

 the Geological Survey of Canada, into the geological structure of South-western 

 Nova Scotia. 



They are five in number, the first being in Queen's County, along the course of 

 the Port Medway River, showing the succession and foldings of the Cambrian 

 rocks in their ordinary form, together with their relations to the great granite 

 axis of the Province, and the occurrence of auriferous deposits. The second is in 

 Yarmouth County, exhibiting the rocks of the same system in a more meta- 

 morphosed condition, and showing also that the rocks about the city of Yarmouth, 

 formerly regarded as Archajan, are also a portion of the Cambrian system. The 

 third section is in Digby County, exhibiting the parallelism of the Cambrian suc- 

 cession north of the granite axis, with the same on its southern side. A fourth 

 section, in Annapolis County, illustrates the relation to the Cambrian rocks, and to 

 the granite, of the fossiliferous and iron-bearing Eo-Devonian rocks of Bear River, 

 Nictau, and Torbrook. A fifth section may also be given, showing the structure 

 and relations of the stratified and igneous rocks, usually regarded as Triassic, of 

 the Annapolis Valley. 



All the sections are diagrammatic, but based on actual surveys. 



2. Problems in Quebec Geology. 

 By R. W. Ells, LL.D., F.R.S.C, of the Geographical Survey of Canada. 



This paper is a brief review of the geological work done in the province of 

 Quebec since the appearance of Dr. Bigsby's first paper on the geology of the 

 province in 1827. It contains a short statement of the conclusions arrived at from 

 time to time by the various workers in this field regarding the structure of the 

 rock formations east of the St. Lawrence, as well as of the Laurentian complex to 

 the north of that river. A summary of the latest views reached from the detailed 

 study of these areas during the last fifteen years, which has appeared in the last 

 volume of the Geological Survey's report, is also presented. 



In regard to the structure of the older crystallines north of the St. Lawrence 

 and Ottawa Rivers, it may be said that the opinion once held, that these rocks 

 were originally of sedimentary origin, has now been greatly modified. The 

 Laurentian rocks of Logan are now divided into two great groups. Of these, the 

 lower is essentially a gneiss formation, and may be styled, for the sake of distinction, 

 the Fundamental Gneiss. This is clearly older in point of time than the series of 

 crystalline limestones, quartzose grey gneisses, and quartzite with which they are 

 often so intimately associated as to render the determination of their true relations 

 in the field difficult, but which at other points are clearly situated above the lower 

 gneiss formation. 



