342 



Canadian Record of Science. 



primary drift, all intimately wrought np together, without 

 any trace of stratification, except in the lower member 

 mentioned. The whole is now consolidated into firm rock, 

 hardened in part by carbonate of lime. It contains no 

 organic remains, except that some of the included masses 

 of sandstone show the usual traces of Permian conifers. It 

 appears to me evidently to have been a glacial moraine of 

 the close of the Permian. The large, rounded masses of 

 stone, intimately wrought up with clay, sand and gravel, 

 without stratification or other indication of sedimentary 

 origin, I do not think can be referred to any other cause 

 than that of ice operation. The angular fragments of pri- 

 mary rocks — quartzites and felsites — sometimes more than 

 six inches in diameter, which it contains, show that the 

 usual agents of a drift period were in operation, conveying 

 material from great distances. 



Section showing relation of Moraine to accompanying Formations. 



HI 



G4 



A. Supposed Permian Moraine. 

 H 1. Triassic Sandstone and Shales. 



B. Water level, Trout E. 

 Gr 4. Permian Sandstone. 



The rounded blocks of sandstone contained in this 

 deposit prove that at the time of its formation the under- 

 lying Permian strata had been consolidated into firm rock, 

 and that a great lapse of time must have intervened 

 between their deposition and its formation. 



The deposits immediately succeeding this, and forming 

 the base of the Trias, are of clay shale or shaly sandstone, 

 and are nearly destitute of organisms. As we mount in 

 the formation, however, more traces of life gradually come 

 in, till at its summit, 200 or 300 feet above the horizon of 

 the moraine, the dark-coloured sandstones bear evidence of 

 an abundance of life, among which were tree ferns, stony 

 corals and gigantic reptiles. On the other hand, the 

 deposits immediately underlying the moraine, and forming 



