180 Bevieics — Geological Survej/ of Canada. 



the Laurentian. The breccia or breccia-conglomerate which lies at 

 the base of the Huronian is the rock referred to by Logan and 

 Murray as 'slate-conglomerate' or ' chloritic slate-conglomerate.' 

 It is composed of angulai", subangular, or rounded fragments of 

 various plutonic rocks, of which a coarse, red gi'anite is the most 

 abundant. Diabases and diorites are also present. Throughout 

 the area the Huronian, where fully represented, is separable into 

 three distinct subdivisions, which are, in ascending order, as 

 follows: (1) Breccia or Breccia - conglomerate, (2) Greywacke 

 shale or slate, (3) Felspathic sandstone or quartzite. 



The Palceozoic rocks contained in this area consist of outlying 

 patches of the following formations : (1) Birdseye and Black 

 Eiver, (2) Lower Trenton, (3) Niagara. Some excellent illustrations 

 of the scenery of the region surveyed, and plates of microscopic 

 sections, accompany this voluminous report, to which two appendices 

 are added, the first consisting of tables of elevations calculated in 

 feet above mean tide water at Quebec, the second containing tables 

 of Cambro-Silurian and Silurian fossils, with remarks upon them, 

 drawn up by Dr. H. M. Ami. 



Eeport J, by Mr. E. Chalmers, is on the surface geology and 

 auriferous deposits of South-Eastern Quebec. It contains the results 

 of observations made during the seasons of 1895, 1896, and 1897. 

 The district included in the report extends from Lake Champlain 

 and the Vermont boundary north-eastward to Montraagny county, 

 and from the province line along the New Hampshire and Maine 

 border north-westward to the plain of the St. Lawrence. A general 

 stud}' of the superficial deposits of the region was made, with 

 special reference to the auriferous alluviums of the ' Eastern 

 Townships.' To carry this out thoroughly the whole of the 

 St. Lawrence Yallej' was examined in some detail, the glaciation 

 and the distribution of the Boulder-clay were investigated, and the 

 origin of the latter and of other superficial deposits traced out. 

 The pre-Glacial, decayed rock materials, 'sedentary' and 'ti-ans- 

 ported,' lying beneath the Pleistocene series, were also studied in 

 the gold-bearing districts, as it is chiefly in these that the precious 

 metal is found in workable quantities. 



Gold was first discovered in South-Eastern Quebec on the Gilbert 

 Eiver about the year 1823. Many years afterwards (18G6) a report 

 by an expert employed by Sir W. E. Logan, at that time Director 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada, Avas drawn up relative to the 

 distribution of gold in the gravels and clays and gold-bearing 

 quartz veins ; since that time gold-raining has gone on intermittently 

 and with varying success in the valleys of the Gilbert and Chaudiere 

 I'ivers and other parts of the district referred to in the report. 

 Although the gold-bearing alluviums of South-Eastern Quebec have 

 been worked and studied for more than half a century by geologists, 

 mining engineers, and others, yet very little is known concerning 

 the true source of the gold. Logan and Sterry Hunt regarded its 

 origin as traceable to the materials derived from the disintegration 

 of the oldest rocks of the region, viz., the crystalline schists of the 



