THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION 77 



NOTES ON GEOLOGICAL MATTERS IN 

 CONTINUATION. 



Read before the Geological Section, FebmaTy 22nd, i8gj. 



The Council of the Association were kind enough to pubUsh, 

 perhaps, more papers on Geological matters than we could have 

 reasonably expected. Still many written or verbal remarks in 

 explanation are necessarily omitted, and could not well be incorpor- 

 ated in the proceedings. I am not surprised to learn that a doubt 

 I expressed relative to the age of a portion of the rocks on the north 

 shore of Anticosti requires a little additional light, more especially 

 since the views expressed appear to be opposed to the opinions of 

 Sir W. Logan and Professor E. Billings. My remarks, I believe, to 

 this effect, were as follows, in reference to the Silurians of the North 

 shore : "While these rocks undoubtedly hold many organic remains, 

 found below the Hudson River series, I doubt whether any of these 

 beds themselves occur there," The conclusion arrived at by Sir W. 

 Logan and Prof. Billings rested solely on organic remains obtained 

 by Richardson, an officer of the Canadian survey. Evidence of this 

 sort may not prove altogether reliable. For instance, between the 

 West Point Light-house and Ellis or Gamache Bay there are a good 

 many well-preserved fossils in shale at the foot of a small cliff. They 

 represent a curious mixture of Upper Hudson River (Bala) and Niag- 

 ara (Wenlock) specimens. The majority obtained by Richardson 

 there belonged to the latter series, whereas the ones I extracted 

 belonged to the former, and I looked upon these shales as true pas- 

 sage-beds, connecting the Cambro-Sils. and the Silurians. 



I wish to call particular attention to the following paragraph, 

 taken from page 221, "Geology of Canada, 1863:" "Loose frag- 

 ' ments of black, strongly bituminous shales (Graptolitic) in every 

 ' way resembling those of the Utica formation and of some of the 

 ' interstratified beds of the Hudson River, are met with on the 

 ' beach on the North side of Anticosti. These are probably washed 

 ' up in storms or pushed up by the ice from the intermediate chan- 



