74 



GEOLOGY OF WESTERN CANADA. 



[1854. 



and general appearance to that series of beds at the summit of 

 the Gypsiferous formation of New York, which is Icnown tliere 

 as the Water-lime group, except that the beds do not contain 

 organic remains, the total absence or very great scarcity of 

 which is a feature that belongs, both in New York and. the 

 bordering part of Canada in the Niagara district, to the re- 

 mainder of the formation. This analogy is farther supported 

 by the fossiliferous portion of the Huron sections, in which 

 several of the fossils seem to correspond with those figured by 

 Hall and Vanuxem, as characteristic of the Corniferous lime- 

 stone and the Onondaga limestone, which constitutes a passage 

 to the Corniferous, and is in the western part of New York 

 and its continuation into Canada, the formation overlying the 

 Gypsiferous. These fossils are Paracydas elliptica, Delthyris 

 undulata, Atrypa affinis, with a CyathoJiUum and a Syrinrjo- 

 pora belonging to the Onondaga limestone, neither of which 

 have been specifically named, accompanying Favosites gotli- 

 landica ; other species of Delthyris and j4?;-_(/j>a occur, with 

 Stropilwmcna and Cypricardia, and univalves resembling the 

 genus Platiceras of Conrad. In addition to the corals men- 

 tioned, others are present, and there are also several species of 

 Trilobites. 



The Corniferous limestone extends over the greater propor- 

 tion of all thewestern parts of the peninsula between Lakes 

 Huron and Erie, but thick deposits of drift cover it up through- 

 out the chief portion of the area it occupies. The only expo- 

 sure of it met with in our excursion, in addition to those 

 already mentioned, near the Sanguine, at Little Pine Brook, 

 and on the Ashfield and Waitland Rivers, were at the Maiden 

 quarries, near Amherstburgh, at the very western extremity of 

 the western district, where it displays thick beds of a pale 

 yellowish limestone of a bituminous quality, abounding in 

 fossils, and where, in addition to those kinds of remains already 

 mentioned, it holds the bones of fishes. 



As it appears probable from what has been said, that the 

 fossiliferous rocks south of the Sanguine belong to the base of 

 the Corniferous limestone, it may be inferred that the whole of 

 the sand and clay covered space between them and the Riviere 

 au Sable (north) is occupied by the Gypsiferous group, the 

 upper members alone of which are brought into view on the 

 shore of Lake Huron, and by a series of gentle undulations 

 carried to Point Douglas and the other parts of the coast to 

 Goderich. When the flatness of the strata, and the thick 

 coating of the superficial arenaceous and argillaceous deposits 

 in those parts of the country, are considered, it is not surpris- 

 ing that the mineral which in other parts renders the formation 

 of economic importance should not have been met with. But 

 as the district becomes settled and cleared, there is little doubt 

 many fortunate exposures of it will be found between the 

 mouth of the Sanguine and those spots where it is already 

 turned to use on the Grand River. The position there occu- 

 pied by the available masses of gypsum is in the middle of the 

 formation, and wherever they have been observed in Canada, 

 they are associated with green calcareo-argillaceous shales and 

 thin beds of limestone. Below these shales and limestones, 

 red marls are known to exist in Canada, not far from the Falls 

 of Niagara, and also in New Y'"ork, where that part of the 

 formation becomes of importance as the salt-bearing rock of 

 Onondaga. That the red marls are probably continued, in 

 front of the Niagara limestones, to the coast of Lake Huron 

 between the mouths of the Sanguine and Au Sable, appears to 

 be indicated by the fact that Captain Bayfield on his map of 

 the lake has represented a bottom of red clay to exist in sound- 



ings of 354 feet, at a spot bearing about W. by S. seventeen 

 or eighteen miles from the mouth of the Sauguine, or about 

 twenty-five miles in the same direction, from a point where the 

 level of the lake would intersect the supposed probable outcrop 

 of the marl on the land ; and though it would require a slope 

 of no more than fourteen feet in a mile to reach the red clay 

 in the submerged locality, while the general inclination of the 

 exposed strata is estimated at thirty feet in a mile, the differ- 

 ence is too small, and such a change in the dip as would be 

 recjuired to compensate it, too common an occurrence to mate 

 it any diflSculty. Yv^ith a slope of thirty feet in a mile, the 

 total thickness of the formation, where it attains the mouth of 

 the Sauguine, would be 300 feet. 



The opinion that the economic masses of gypsum will be 

 found to accompany the formation to which they belong to the 

 coast of Lake liuron, is supported by the fact that such are 

 known to exist in its farther extension on Burnt Island, not 

 far northward of Michillimakinac, the rocks constituting the 

 group of islands in the vicinity of which have been ascertained 

 to belong to the gypsiferous series ; and the value of gypsum 

 in its applications to the soil renders it little doubtful that its 

 presence will have a material effect upon the prosperity of such 

 settlements as may be found to posses available quantities in 

 their vicinity ; but as the mineral is distributed in detatched 

 and isolated masses, varj'ing greatly in size and extent, and 

 not in continuous sheets among the strata, the discovery of 

 workable parts can only be expected as the result of careful 

 and persevering research, continued for some time. 



In addition to gypsum, hydraulic lime is a material of 

 economic value likely to result from this formation ; a bed of 

 it at Point Douglas has already been alluded to, which in the 

 experiments tried with it, hardened rapidly under water, after 

 having been burnt and pulverized, and the statements of a 

 previous report show that considerable quantities of it exist in 

 the formation, near Paris on the Grand River. Good common 

 material for building purposes and limestone for burning are 

 met with in both the Gypsiferous and Corniferous formation. 

 At Goderich, about half a mile above the bridge across the 

 Maitland River, a dark brown sandstone, soft in the bed, but 

 hardening on exjjosure, has been used for coarse building pur- 

 poses, and found useful in the constniction of limekilns. At 

 the same place there are limestones in the upper part of the 

 bank, which make a good substantial building stone, hut are 

 unfit for any ornamental part of an edifice, in consequence of a 

 tendency to become iron-stained. The body of the gaol and 

 court-house at Goderich is built of such a stone, but the facings 

 of the structure, I was informed, were brought from Maiden. 

 Rocks of a similar character to those above mentioned occur 

 at the rapids on the same river near Papp's farm, about five 

 miles from Goderich on the London road : the strata being 

 nearly flat, are capable of being easily quarried. At Maiden, 

 near Amherstburgh, a limestone of a whitish gray, and some- 

 times of a buff colour, is extensively quarried for building 

 stone ; the beds, which lie nearly flat, are from one to two feet 

 thick, in no case require more than two or three feet of soil to 

 be stripped fi-om them, and in some parts are attainable at the 

 very surface. They give a very handsome building stone, and 

 at the base of some of the sections exposed there is a compact 

 layer of a buff colour, somewhat resembling lithographic stone 

 in its appearance ; but for lithographic purposes it seems to be 

 too brittle. All the beds burn to a good white lime. When 

 the beds of the Corniferous foiTaation hold too much of the 

 hornstone, (from the large disseminated quantities of which it 



