298 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



number of the mineral species which usually accompany the Lauren- 

 tian limestones was also found. 



In the county of Ottawa the most productive " phosphate belt " 

 as yet known runs northerly and follows the general course of the 

 Riviere du Lievre. It has been traced through the townships of 

 Templeton and Buckingham, Portland, Bowman, Bigelow and Wells, 

 and I have been credibly informed that the mineral has been found 

 in places in this direction to a distance of 100 miles from the Ottawa. 

 In the Perth and Kingston region, the phosphate belt runs from the 

 township of North Elmsley south-westward through North Burgess, 

 North Crosby, Bedford, Storrington and into Loughborough. 



There is little doubt that the apatite has been derived principally 

 from the pyroxene rocks. Phosphate of lime in small quantities is 

 a common constituent of igneous rocks. Dr. Harrington has shown 

 that the trappean rocks of the isolated mountains in the Province of 

 Quebec contain it in very appreciable quantities, and it has been 

 met with in the amygdaloids of the Bay of Chaleur. I have found 

 launches and crystals of apatite associated with amygdaloid and syenitic 

 ^I'anite at Trout Lake at the source of one of the branches of the 

 Moose Biver. There is no evidence whatever that the Laurentian 

 apatite has had the remotest connection with organic life, although 

 it is a rather curious circumstance that the average proportion of 

 fluorine in this anciently formed mineral should approximate that 

 ■contained in the bones of mammals. 



The pyroxenite appeal's to take the form of irregular beds and al- 

 most isolated masses running with the sti'atification, but these have 

 been altered in shape and partially dispersed during the metamor- 

 phism of the whole mass containing them. They have probably 

 been originally derived from igneous sources and have perhaps 

 formed parts of submarine ejections while these ancient rocks were 

 in the course of deposition; or they may have been intruded subse- 

 quently. They have since all undergone great alteration and distur- 

 bance, in the course of which they have been in a heated and some- 

 what plastic state and have become more or less mingled with one 

 another. It was at this remote period that the irregular and some- 

 what ill-defined veins of the second and third class described by Dr. 

 Hunt as belonging to such rocks were formed — (Geol. Survey, Report 

 of Progress, 1863-66, p. 187). These veins are very numerous among 

 all the Laurentian rocks. They are filled with the prevailing consti- 



