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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 30, 



valent beds were there found to emerge from beneath 14,700 feet of 

 carboniferous strata. Later discoveries by Dr. King* and Mr. Lea in 

 Pennsylvania give clearer evidences than the Horton specimens of 

 similar facts. 



On the present occasion I have to place before the Society speci- 

 mens which, interpreted by Professor Owen, who has had the kindness 

 to examine them, appear to carry traces of the same class of ani- 

 mals still farther down in the series of geological formations, — in fact, 

 to the very lowest rock that in America (up to the present time) gives 

 signs of created beings. The specimens consist of a small slab of 

 sandstone, showing foot-prints on one of its surfaces, and a plaster- 

 cast from a longer surface of a similar description. The original is 

 in the museum at Montreal connected with the Geological Survey of 

 Canada. It would have been more satisfactory to have exhibited the 

 original than the cast ; but as the former weighs upwards of a ton, I 

 could not conveniently carry it with me across land to the sea-board 

 at Boston, where I embarked ; and as it was quarried out of its bed 

 only in December last, after all the vessels had left the St. Lawrence, 

 there has occurred no opportunity of transporting it by water. 



My attention was first drawn to the track by Mr. Abraham, then 

 editor of the Montreal Gazette, who duly appreciated its possible 

 geological importance, and inserted a notice of it in his daily journal. 

 The locality is on the left bank of the river St. Louis, at the village 

 of Beauharnois, on the south side of the St. Lawrence, about twenty 

 miles above the city of Montreal [see Map, PI. XIV.]. The track 

 occurs in a quarry where the rock, like the portion exhibited, is hard 

 and fine-grained, in some parts approaching quartz-rock, and so sili- 

 ceous, that similar material is used at Vaudreuil, a few miles distant, 

 in the manufacture of glass. The rock is thick and close-bedded, 

 with very thin partings, most probably of argillaceous material, be- 

 tween the layers, and the surfaces of the beds have a slight yellowish 

 tinge from the presence of a small quantity of peroxide of iron. The 

 surface displaying the impression was uncovered in the progress of 

 quarrying the stone for building purposes. The most western portion 

 of what was exposed is that removed to Montreal, like the plaster-cast, 

 measuring 12^ feet in length. For about 50 or 60 feet beyond this, 

 the overlying bed still conceals the track, which becomes exposed 

 again for about as much more, the whole being in a pretty straight 

 line, with very slight sinuosities similar to those in the cast. At 

 some distance from this track there is another of the same character ; 

 but I am not quite sure whether it is on the same surface. I saw it 

 in the spring, but in December I could not identify the spot, a freshet 

 which had occurred having left a slight deposit covering it up. 

 My quarryman subsequently ascertained its position, and will point it 

 out on my return. 



The general geological structure of the district in which the quarry 

 lies is very simple. It had been ascertained in the progress of the 

 Survey, previous to my becoming acquainted with the impressions, 

 and is alluded to in two separate Reports of Geological Progress pre- 

 * See Anniversary Address of the President, 1851, p. lvii ; and supra, p. 246. 



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