MINERALS AND GEOLOGY OF CANADA. 503 
the generality of Canadian rocks, are comparatively of little interest. 
Throughout the broad areas occupied by our Silurian strata, (as in 
other parts of the world,) only fucoids or seaweeds appear to occur. 
It isin the Devonian formations that land plants are first met with; 
but in Canada, with the exception of Gaspé in the extreme east of 
the Province, obscure traces of these forms have alone been discovered. 
In Western Canada, as in the ease of the underlying Silurian strata, 
our lower Devonian beds have only yielded fucoidal types, and it is 
merely in the limited patches of the Chemung and Portage Group 
(see Parr V.) that fragmentary remains and impressions of terrestrial 
forms oecasionally occur. Long furrowed stems, several feet in length, 
and varying in diameter from an inch to three inches, occur in the 
dark bituminous shales of that formation, at Cape Ipperwash (Kettle 
Point,) on Lake Huron. These have been referred to Calamites, a 
genus of sub-aquatie or marsh plants of common occurrence in the 
coal strata, but their character is still obscure. The fossil plants of 
Gaspé are described in valuable papers by Dr. Dawson of Montreal, 
in the fifth and sixth volumes of the Canadian Naturalist. In fig. 
64; we give a sketch of a common but still unnamed fucoid from the 
Trenton limestone of 
Belleville and other 
parts of Canada. Fig. 
65 represents another & 
supposed fucoid, the == 
Scolithus linearis of 
Hall, from the Pots- 
Fig. 64. dam sandstone of the Fig. 65. 
County of Leeds, C. W., and other districts (see Parr V.) It forms, 
in general, cylindrical or flattened reed-like casts, varying in length 
from a few inches to a couple of feet, and traversing the strata across 
the direction of their bedding. The true nature of these casts, 
however, is still involved in doubt. By some paleontologists they are 
looked upon as resulting from holes or tubes made by sand-burrowing 
annelides. Finally, it may be observed that impressions of modern 
leaves (Thwa, Populus, Acer, &c., Sc.,) are occasionally found in 
our drift clays and shell marl deposits (see Part V.) 
Fossilized Animal Remains :—Keeping always before us the fact 
that this Essay is addressed strictly to the general reader, it will be 
necessary, before adverting to the animal remains occurring in Cana- 
