THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 65 



BRIEF NOTES ON THE DEVONIAN ROCKS, ONTARIO. 



Read before the Geological Section, December 2^th, iSg^. 

 BY COL. C. C. GRANT. 



The Corniferous Limestones of Hagersville, in the neighbor- 

 hood of Hamilton, are merely a portion of a great formation known 

 to geologists as the Devonian system. They overlie the Upper 

 Silurian. Murcheson and Sedgwick calculated the rocks deposited 

 in the old world, so called, during that age had a thickness of 

 nearly three miles. It appears to be a little more on this continent 

 — however there appears to be no material difference. Whence was 

 this great amount of sediment obtained ? Evidently from the degra- 

 dation of pre-existing "Archaean " and " Silurian " lands. 



The limestones present many forms of marine life, especially 

 corals in Ontario, but appear deficient in fish remains, which are so 

 abundant elsewhere, that we frequently notice " the Devonian " called 

 " the age of fishes." A few shark spines from the quarries at 

 St. Mary's represent all I have seen, and on reference to Nicholson's 

 work, Palffiontalogy of Ontario, I am unable to find that the Toronto 

 Professors were more successful than I have been in my researches. 



Through the persevering efforts of the late Professor Hartt, Sir 

 W. Dawson, Matthews and others in New Brunswick, Gaspe, etc., 

 we are enabled to form an idea regarding the land vegetation of this 

 age. The record, doubtlessly, is very incomplete, and it is only quite 

 recently that anything was known respecting it. Flowerless plants 

 (Acrogens) seem rather scantily represented in the Dominion. I 

 have heard some highly interesting land plants have been discovered 

 in the Devonian beds in the United States within the past few years. 

 Conifers occur in Canada, and the late Dr. Newberry detected a well 

 marked portion of a Tree-fern in the coniferous limestones of Ohio. 

 The latter, probably, was brought down by a river in flood, which 

 undermined the bank where it grew. It was only within the past 

 quarter of a century that I learned that "the calamites " of the 

 carboniferous had put in an appearance at an earlier period of this 

 world's history in a geological point of view. I was once endeavor- 



