522 REPORT— 1898. 



Canadian Pleistocene Flora and Favna : Report of the Committee, 

 consisting of Sir J. W. Dawson (Chairman), Professor D. P. 

 Penhallow, Dr. H. Ami, Mr. G. W. Lamplugh and Professor 

 A. P. Coleman (Secretaru), appointed, to farther investigate the 

 Flora and Fauna of the Pleistocene Beds in Canada. 



Appendix : Pleistocene Flora of the Don Valley, hy Professor D. P. 



Penhallow imge 525 



The most extensive and interesting series of inter-glacial beds in Canada, 

 if not in America, occurs in and near Toronto, along the valley of the 

 Don and at Scarborough Heights. The beds at Scarborough were 

 admirably described Ijy George Jennings Hinde in 1878,^ but no further 

 attention was paid to the inter-glacial deposits of the region until 1894, 

 when a paper on fossils obtained from the Don Yalley was published by 

 A. P. Coleman.^ In the following year the same geologist made an 

 attempt to correlate the Don and Scarborough series of deposits, which, 

 though only a few miles apart, present very different features, the fossil 

 remains from Scarborough indicating a climate cooler than the present, 

 while the fossils from the Don suggest a decidedly warmer climate than 

 that now found at Toronto.^ At the Toronto meeting of this Association 

 a paper adding new points to those previously published was read before 

 the Geological Section by A. P. Coleman, and the two most important 

 localities were visited by members of the Section ; with the result tfiat a 

 grant of 20Z. was made, to be used in investigating the flora and fauna of 

 the Pleistocene of the region. 



In expending the grant two points were kept specially in view — the 

 finding of new fossils, particularly wood and leaves, so as to determine as 

 certainly as possible the climatic conditions at the time when the beds 

 were deposited ; and the determination of the relations between the cold- 

 climate beds (peaty clays) of Scarborough and the warm-climate beds 

 (unio sands and clays) of the Don Yalley. 



Important results have been obtained in both directions. 



Excavations made at Gaol Hill, in the Don Valley, have provided a 

 considerable amount of wood and a portion of the head of a large fish, 

 while collections made at the Don Yalley brickworks have added 

 numerous leaves to the flora jDreviously known. 



Specimens of wood were obtained also from the Scarborough clays and 

 sands, as well as from similar beds at Price's brickyard, half-way between 

 Scarborough and the Don. All the plant remains have been determined 

 by Professor Penhallow, and are described by him in an ap|pendix to this 

 report. 



The peaty clays (cold-climate beds) and the unio sands and clays 

 (warm-climate beds) had never been found with absolute certainty in the 

 same section, and in order to determine their relative position three wells 

 or shafts were sunk — two at the foot of Scarborough Heights, half a mile 

 east of Victoria Park, and one at Price's brickyard. 



' 'Glacial and Inter-glacial Strata of Scarborough Heights,' Can. Jour., 1878, 

 p. 388, &c. 



- Avierican Geologist, vol. siii., Feb. 1894, pp. 85-95. 

 * Journal of Geology, vol. iii., No. 6, 1895, pp. 622-645. 



I 



