

1854.] 



GEOLOGICAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1852-3. 



97 



Cjjc CauairinH |oiinuiL 



TORONTO, DECEMBER, 185 4. 



Geological Survey of Canada. 



REPORT OF PROGRESS FOR THE YEAR 1852-3. 



The Report for the year 1852-3, recently printed by order of 

 the Legislative Assembly, is one of the most voluminous of 

 the series. It occupies one hundred and seventy nine octavo 

 pages, and embodies a large amount of very valuable and in- 

 structive information respecting the Geology and Topography 

 of Canada, as well as the distribution of economic materials in 

 both Provinces. Mr. Logan's examination of the district 

 which lies on the north side of the St. Lawrence, between 

 Montreal and Cape Tourinente, below Quebec, appears to have 

 been rendered very laborious ou account of the want of a good 

 map of the country. So inaccurate and deficient were the 

 maps of the settled parts, that it became necessary to go over 

 the whole ground on foot, and to measure, by pacing, the 

 distances travelled. Mr. Logan pithily observes, that " the 

 weariness resulting from the attention required to count one's 

 paces accurately, every day, and all day long, for five or six 

 months of assiduous exploration, is hast understood hy those 

 who have made the attempt.' 



" The country which lies between the upper end of the island 

 of Montreal and Cape Tourmente on the left side of the St. 

 Lawrence, and occupies the space intei-vening between the 

 river and the flank of the metamorphic hills, to which Mr. 

 Garneau, in his History of Canada, has given the name of 

 the Laurentides, has a length of about 200 miles, and it gra- 

 dually widens from a point at Cape Tourmente, to about thirty 

 miles at Montreal, having thus an area of about 3000 square 

 miles. It presents a general flat surfiice, rising in many places 

 by abrupt steps, (the marks of ancient sea margins,) into suc- 

 cessive terraces, some of which are from 200 to 300 feet above 

 the level of the river, and the whole have a general parallelism 

 with it. These terraces are occupied by clay and sand, and 

 the latter predominating, gives them, as a whole, a light soil. 

 In some parts extensive swamps prevail on the terraces, but 

 there is not a lake in the whole area. The rivers wiiich cross 

 it, (some of them large streams, of which the St. ^Maurice is 

 the greatest,) descending the flank of the metamorphic hills, 

 all give a succession of falls and rapids before reaching the 

 plain, a8"ording a great variety of picturesque and beautiful 

 cascades, and yielding a vast extent of water-power, capable of 

 application to sawing timber and other manufacturing purposes. 



Quitting the metamorphic rocks, these streams at once cut 

 deep into the softer deposits of the plains, sometimes at a leap 

 attaining nearly the level of the St. Lawrence, and intersect 

 the country by numerous nearly parallel ravines ; they gene- 

 rally display steep banks of clay and sand, but in a lew in- 

 stances run in troughs, exposing perpendicular sections of 

 8li"-htly inclined strata of" limestone or black shale, piled upon 

 one another to the height of from twenty to eighty feet. 

 Vol. IIL, No. 5, Deckmber, 18.54. 



The name which has been given in previous reports to the 

 rocks underlying the fossiliferous formations in this part of 

 Canada is the Metamorphic series, but inasmuch as this is 

 applicable to any series of rocks in an altered condition, and 

 might occasion confusion, it has been considered expedient to 

 apply to them for the future, the more distinctive appellation 

 of the Laurcntian series, a name founded ou that given by Mr; 

 Garneau to the chain of hills which they compose. 



The geological formations which underlie the district in 

 ascending order would thus be as follows : — 



1. Laurcntian series. 



2. Potsdam sandstone. 



3. Calciferous sandrock. 



4. Chazy limestone. 



5. Birds-eye, Black-River, and Trenton limestones, 



6. Utica slate. 



7. Hudson-River group. 



8. Oneida conglomerate. 



Mr. Logan then proceeds to describe the distribution of 

 these formations, together with the attitude they assume in 

 the ph3'sical structure of the region. The occuiTence of eco- 

 nomic materials is next adverted to. No very promising field 

 of enterprise appears to present itself in any part of the district 

 examined. 



" The materials having an economic value seem to be almost 

 wholly confined to bog iron ore and iron ochres, together with 

 stone fit for the purposes of construction and flagging, as well 

 as limestone for burning, clays for common bricks and pottery, 

 and peat, in some parts, fit for fuel." The observations of 

 Mr. Logan respecting the distribution of auriferous drifts are 

 highly important, as they settle, for the time, the question of 

 the presence of workable gold fields in Canada. 



" In the month of December, a few days were devoted to a 

 farther examination of the distribution of this metal in the 

 Eastern Townships, and particles of it were found in the valley 

 of the St. Francis at various intervals from Richmond to 

 Hunting's mills on the Salmon river, flowing into the Massa- 

 wippi, a little above Lenoxvillo. Though the weather was 

 rather adverse to the examination, on account of the cold and 

 frost, yet the results were much the same as those of similar 

 previous explorations farther to the east. One of the positions 

 examined was on the road passing to the north of the mill-pond 

 on the Magog river above Sherbrooke, where particles were 

 met with iu an ancient hard bound gravel, which probably has 

 never been disturbed since the time when the surface arose 

 from beneath a tertiary sea. The pcsition is about 156 feet 

 above the level of the St. Francis at Sherbrooke, and would 

 probably be over 000 feet above the St. Lawrence in Lake St. 

 Peter ; this fiict serves to shew that the metal is not confined 

 to the lowest parts of the valleys, but will have a distribution 

 co-extensive with the original drift of the district. 



It may be considered that the auriferous drift has now been 

 shown to exist over 10,000 sipiare miles on the south side of 

 the St. Lawrence, comprehending the prolongation of the 

 Green Mountains into Canada, and the country on the south- 

 east side of them. In following the range of this drift north- 

 eastwardly, the researches of the survey have not extended 

 beyond Etehemin Lake ; but the general similarity of the 

 rocks beyond, renders it probable that little change will be 

 found for a distance extending much farther ; perhaps to the 

 extremity of Gaspe. It may be proper to remark that though 

 the ascertained auriferous area is thus so much increased be- 



