470 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 
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it looks like a ladder of rope.” One of the impressions is about thirteen feet in 
length; and the average breadth of those at present obtained is about six inches 
and three-quarters. In some, a central ridge runs longitudinally between the two 
side ridges, but not always parallel with them. 
Sir William Logan has bestowed upon these new tracks the name of Climactich- 
nites Wilsont in honour of their discoverer, Dr. Wilson of Perth, long known as 
one of our most zealous and successful labourers in the field of Canadian Geology. 
The generic appellation has reference to the ladder-like form of these remarkable 
impressions.—For figures and more ample details, the reader is referred to the 
Canadian Naturalist for August 1860, in which also will be found some valuable 
papers by Mr, Billings, Mr. D’Urban, and other writers. 
SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF HASTINGS COUNTY, CANADA WEST.—BY E. J. CHAPMAN. 
The following brief notice was drawn up for publication in the Hastings 
Directory. Being intended for general readers, it contains in a condensed form, a 
few explanatory details that would otherwise have been omitted. These, it is 
thought, however, may prove serviceable also to some of the readers of our Journal, 
The rock formations present in Hastings County, comprise, in an ascending 
order: (1) The Laurentian Series of Sir William Logan ; (2) Some of the Lower 
Silurian rocks; (8) The Drift Formation ; and (4) certain recent deposits of local 
occurrence. 
1. The Laurentian Kormation :—The rocks of this division constitute the most 
ancient deposits hitherto recognised on the continent of North America. They 
extend from Labrador along the North shore of the St. Lawrence, to within a short 
distance of Quebec, from whence they continue inland, and cross the Ottawa above 
the city of that name. West of this point, their outcrop sub-divides (so to say) 
into two branches, one of which passes towards the south-east, crossing the St. 
Lawrence at the Thousand Isles, and forming the wild district of the Adirondack 
Mountains in the state of New York. The other branch sweeps broadly towards 
the north-west, and its southern edge runs through the south limits of the Town- 
ships of Elzevir, Madoc, and Marmora, in Hastings County, and, continuing its 
course, strikes Georgian Bay near the mouth of the Severn. 
The Laurentian rocks form also the greater portion of the north shore of Lake 
Superior, and cover an enormous area throughout the northern part of the Provinee 
generally. In popular language they are often, though incorrectly, ealled granite. 
True granite never occurs in beds or strata, but always in irregular, and generally 
intrusive masses, or in yeins; whereas our Laurentian rocks are always stvatified- 
They are looked upon as altered sedimentary deposits, and belong chiefly to the 
rocks known as micaceous and hornblendic (or syenitic) gneiss. Micaceous, or 
common gneiss, is composed of quartz, feldspar, and mica, and has usually a grey 
or red colour, but is sometimes almost black. MHornblendic or syenitic gneiss 
consists of quartz, feldspar, and hornblende, and possesses in general a well-mark- 
ed green colour; or is, otherwise, red and green, or red and black. These rocks, 
in layers or strata of different colours, alternate with one another, and occasionally 
by the absence of feldspar, pass into mica slate and hornblende slate. They are 
frequently traversed by broad bands and veins of white quartz; and in some 
