198 Canadian Record of Science. 



The Monteregian Hills — A Canadian Petro 

 graphical Province. 1 



GENEPtAL STATEMENT. 



In the province of Quebec, between the enormous 

 expanse of the Lauren tian highlands to the northwest, 

 constituting the " Canadian Shield," and the disturbed 

 and folded tract of country to the southeast which marks 

 the Appalachian uplift, there is a great plain underlain by 

 nearly horizontal rocks of Lower Paleozoic age. This 

 plain, while really showing slight differences of level from 

 place to place, seems to the casual observer perfectly 

 flat. Its surface is mantled with a fertile soil consisting 

 of drift redistributed upon its surface by the sea which 

 at the close of glacial times covered it. The uniform ex- 

 panse of this plain, however, is broken by several isolated 

 hills composed of igneous rocks, which arise abruptly 

 from it and which constitute very striking features of the 

 landscape. It was at the foot of one of these hills rising 

 by the side of the river St. Lawrence, and which he named 

 Mount Koyal, that Jacques Car tier on his first visit found 

 the 'Indian encampment of Hochelaga, whose site is now 

 overspread by the city of Montreal, which has not only 

 grown around the foot of the hill, but has extended up 

 its sides and has reserved its summit as a park. 



Prom the top of Mount Eoyal, the other hills referred 

 to can all be seen rising from the plain to the east, while 

 to the north the plain stretches away unbroken to the 

 foot of the Laurentian country. 



As has been remarked by Sir Archibald Geikie : 2 



1 Read before the Natural History Society of Montreal, April 5th, 

 1904, and reprinted from the " Journal of Geology " by permission 

 of the author. 



2 Text-Hook of Geology. 



