Prof. Bonneij — Eozoon at Cote St. Pierre. ' 293 



writers, however, of that paper evidently found that more informa- 

 tion existed as to the microscopic structure of the Canadian Eozoon 

 than as to its mode of occurrence, so that a few notes on this subject 

 may be of some use as a contribution to the discussion. I visited 

 one of the most noted localities for Eozoon — Cote St. Pierre — in 

 1884:, when I had the inestimable advantage of being conducted by 

 Sir J. W. Dawson, to whose unwearied kindness and hospitality 

 I was so often indebted during my stay in Canada. I made careful 

 notes and rough sketches of what I saw, collected a fair suite of 

 specimens, and paid especial attention to the relation of the structure 

 to other parts of the rock-masses. Upon the question of the origin 

 of Eozoon I do not purpose to enter : I shall resti'ict myself to 

 stating facts of which, as it seems to me, accoimt must be taken in all 

 attempts to interpret this extraordinary structure. 



Cote St. Pierre is a scattered settlement — one can hardly call it 

 a hamlet — as far as I remember, about twelve miles from Papineau- 

 ville, on the railway between Montreal and Ottawa. At the station a 

 shallow cutting exhibits an interesting section^ of Laurentian rocks — 

 marble, calc-mica schist, and biotite-hornblende schist, with a vein of 

 pegmatite — all coarsely crystalline, between two masses of gneiss, the 

 higher of which is finer in grain than the lower. The road to Cote 

 St. Pierre traverses an undulating or slightly hilly district, consisting 

 of gneisses belonging to the upper group, which are often masked 

 by a thin covering of sands and clays (Pleistocene). There are still 

 very considerable tracts of uncleared forest. The crystalline rock, 

 in general character (I did not attempt a minute study), was a 

 distinctly foliated, moderately fine-grained reddish gneiss. This, at 

 the time reminded me of some from the Central Highlands of 

 Scotland, which I had recently examined for Dr. Hicks, and to 

 which he assigned a fairly low place in his succession.^ The rock 

 is moderately schistose, but in general is strong and not friable. 



We kept along the upper series of gneisses, as I was informed, till 

 we arrived at Cote St. Pierre. The cottages are scattered about 

 a rather open and shallow valley, perhaps a quarter of a mile wide ; 

 the bed, except where there is a large pool, being nowhere quite 

 flat. On the western, or right, bank is a forest-clad flattish ridge, 

 formed by the lower group of gneisses ; on the eastern a similar 

 ridge, consisting of the upper group. The limestone, according to 

 Sir J. W. Dawson, occupies the whole of the valley, and its thickness 

 was estimated by Sir W. Logan as about 500 feet.^ We spent some 

 hours in examining sundry outcrops of the crystalline limestone (all, 

 I believe, which are of importance), traced the lower gneiss for some 

 distance downwards, and just glanced at the upper gneiss. My 

 description will be, I hope, more intelligible if I follow the apparent 

 stratigraphical order and not that in which the notes were made. 



The lowest rock visited was a rather dark, somewhat streaky, 



1 Described briefly in Presidential Address to the Geological Society, 1886, 

 vol. xlii Proc, p. 82. 



2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. (1883), vol. xxxix, p. 159. 



3 This is a minimum. It may be much more. He gives it in places 1500 feet. 



