JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GEOLOGICAL SECTION OF 



THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION FOR THE YEAR 



ENDING MAY, 1897. 



The Section has much pleasure in submitting this, their annual 

 report, because of the satisfactory progress which has marked its 

 efforts during the past year. 



The members who have met from time to time to carry on the 

 work feel that they have been amply rewarded for the little sacrifice 

 made in the interest of the Section, because of having been kept in 

 touch with the march of geological discoveries, as well as the scien- 

 tific topics, which are occupying the minds of the Palseontological 

 students of the different countries. Last year, while Professor Rauf, 

 the German student, was busy with the analysis and classification of 

 the stromotoporidas, Professor. Head and others, of the United 

 States, were engaged in studying the fossil sponges, the graptolites, 

 and the star fishes. This year the channel of inquiry has been 

 extended to include a large number of heretofore obscure genera and 

 species. 



The monograph of Professor Gurly, upon the graptolite of 

 North America, alluded to in last year's report, has not yet been com- 

 pleted, and he has had sent to him, by Colonel C. C. Grant, 

 additional specimens to further illustrate his work. 



Since our last year's report the members of the section have had 

 submitted to them some difficult problems relative to the possibility 

 of their being a large area of the carbonaceous deposit in Ontario, 

 because of the reported discovery of anthracite in the Algoma district 

 among the Huronian rocks. 



The amiferous rocks of Western Ontario have attracted the 

 attention of not only the geological student and mining engineer, but 

 also the enterprising speculator. Mining developments have revealed 

 the fact that some of these rock areas possess much mineral wealth. 

 This has had the effect of diverting much of our ready money into 

 new channels, and as a result, a number of new towns, as they are 

 called, have sprung up suddenly and dot the plains and the hillside. 



