THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 117 
I noticed the superficial accumulation, the loosely aggregated masses 
of sand and other matter, came from places close by, mountain 
chains adjacent, while many of the transported boulders of the 
tile have been traced to lands further north than the Ulster 
Province. ‘‘ This boulder clay or tile” remarks Sir Archibald 
Geikie, in “The Class Book of Geology,” (1886), ‘“‘is always 
more or less /vca/ in its origin, but contains a variable proportion of 
stones which have travelled for a greater or less distance, sometimes 
several hundreds of miles.” The stones or rocks in the detritus, 
more especially when hard and embedded in a clayey matrix, 
present smooth striated surfaces, the strize usually running along the 
length of the stone, but not infrequently crossing each other. This 
characteristic striation points unmistakably to the slow, creeping 
motion of land ice. When the wing of my regiment arrived at 
London, Ont., a quarter of a century ago, I felt assured I was in 
a Devonian district, although I had not previously seen a rock of the 
formation 77 sztu, and probably too feet of boulder clay was over- 
lying. I reached this conclusion from remarking the numerous 
Corals (Corniferous) on the surface, and the characteristic Shell 
(Spirifira Mucronatus) Hamilton Shale. The latter (which was in 
rounded water-worn masses) must have been, as Dr. Chapman, 
Toronto University, suggested, removed in a frozen state originally, 
otherwise I cannot see how it possibly could have held together 
without disintegration. I had no difficulty whatever in breaking it 
up with a very small hammer, and in obtaining almost any quantity 
I required. Hamilton shells figured or described are common 
in the series. This digression may be pardonable in an 
old collector, for this information may be utilized by younger 
students of the Geological Section, wherever “drift” is found, 
from Hagersville to London or Komoka, Ontario. 
To return to the subject of my brief address, it is to be regretted 
that so few of us take much interest in the examination of microscopi- 
cal objects. The Formanifera, like the Corals from the earlier ages, have 
largely contributed to building up our globe, yet very little is known 
about them. Thechalk beds of Europe, with a maximum thickness of 
tooo feet, are composed almost entirely of minute shells and sponge 
spicules. Although other fossils may be abundant, they form but an 
insignificant portion of the vast aggregated mass. The recent deep 
sea dredging of the “Challenger” proves a like material is still 
