Authors Abstracts. 



PAPERS READ AT THE MONTREAL MEETING OE THE 

 GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 



Sands and Clays of the Ottawa Basin. By R. W. Ells. 



The paper describes the leading physical features of the Ottawa 

 River basin, which comprises about 130,000 square miles, and which 

 includes numerous large streams, both from the north and south. The 

 elevations of the height of land on the north, which divides the Ottawa 

 waters from those which flow into James Bay, are given as ranging 

 from goo feet at Grand Lake, one of the large expansions in the upper 

 part of the Ottawa River, to about 1100 feet near the source of the 

 stream. Further east at the head of the St. Maurice, the elevation is 

 somewhat greater, probably between 1300 and 1400 feet. The height 

 of the divide to the north of Lake Temiscaming is given as 923 feet, 

 while the elevation of Lake Temagami, which empties from the south 

 into Lake Huron and from the northeast into the Ottawa, is 967 feet 

 above sea. The height of land along the southern rim of the basin 

 ranges from 645 feet at Lake Nipissing to about 1400 feet at the head 

 waters of the Petewawa and Madawaska rivers, decreasing to 417 feet 

 at the head of the Rideau. 



Over all this area to the height of land, apparently continuous 

 deposits of a blue clay, similar in character to the recognized marine 

 clays of the lower Ottawa and St. Lawrence basins, can be seen. These 

 have in places a thickness of over 100 feet, and they are overlaid over 

 a great portion of the basin by sands, similar in character to the 

 well-known Saxicava sands which contain marine fossils further east. 

 In the eastern part of this area well defined deposits of these clays 

 and sands holding marine shells, are found at elevations of nearly or 

 quite 600 feet above sea level, while shore lines and old beaches, also of 

 marine origin, are to be seen along the north side of the St. Lawrence, 

 as well as along the lower Ottawa, which range in elevation from 600 

 to at least 1000 feet above present sea level. The bones of a whale 



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