1855.] REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



printed in full in tlie reports of the Association, the papers in general 

 being printed in abstract only. 



3d. We have ascertained that certain fossil and recent shells, instead of 

 carbonate, are composed of phosphate of lime, by -n-hich has been 

 broken down a heretofoi-e supposed distinction between the skeletons 

 of vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Professor Agassiz and other 

 naturalists appear to think that very important results will flow from 

 the discovery. 



4th. The age of thegohl-bearingrocksinNorth .4merica has heretofore 

 been considered anterior to the fossiliferous, but our investigations 

 from Gaspe to Vermont shew them to belong to the Silurian epoch. 



5th. Many mineral species have been analysed and several new ones 

 discovered by Mr. Hunt, and his results have all been adopted by Dana, 

 acknowledged in Europe and America to be one of the first authorities, 

 and by aU the various European mineralogists. 



Mr. Logan frequently alludes to the discoveries of the 

 accomplished chemist to the Survey, Mr. Hunt, but as we 

 propose soon to advert to the evidence of that gentleman we 

 shall forbear to dwell here upon the results of his valuable and 

 most interesting; investigations. 



The ne.^t witness examined was the Reverend Andrew 

 Bell, of L'Orignal, a gentleman who has devoted much 

 time to the prosecution of geological enquiry in Canada 

 for many years past, and whose opportunities of testing the 

 accuracy of the Survey have been extensive and prolonged. 

 Mr. Bell considers the information contained in the Reports to 

 be " exceedingly accurate," and the amount of information 

 obtained in regard to the country explored " has been \erj 

 great." " The Survey has already brought to light facts suf- 

 ficient to show that the mineral wealth of Canada is enormous, 

 affording materials for the useful and profitable application of 

 labour, skill and capital to an almost unbounded extent, and of 

 course all tending towards the future and progressive prosperity 

 of the Province." We are glad to have the opportunity of 

 recording Mr. Bell's testimony that there is a growing taste for 

 geological studies in this country and an appreciation of the 

 advantages to be gained from them. 



"Nothing is plainer to me from my own experience, than the fact 

 that there is a gradual breaking down of the prejudices which have 

 been entertained in regard to Geology ; and amongst the whole circle 

 of my friends and acquaintances throughout the Province, I have 

 marked a growing desire for information in reg.ard to it, as well as a 

 growing conviction, that there is a definite and orderly arrangement 

 of the rocks, and that it is only in certain rocks that certain useful 

 minerals are to be obtained, — in short that it is science, that points 

 the way. This is especially the case among the young men of the 

 generation fast coming into public life ; I see it in the increased love 

 there is for Geological reading generally ; I see it in the incipient col- 

 lections of fossils and mineriils, I occasionally meet with through the 

 country, and I see it in the frequent visits I receive for the purpose of 

 seeing and studying m3' own collection." 



The Reverend Mr. Horan, Professor of Geology and Miner- 

 alogy in the Seminary of Quebec, expressed the opinion that 

 the Survey has had extremely important results in a scientific 

 point of view, and has proved beneficial in its economic 

 application. 



Count dc Rottermund of Quebec, examined. — Count do 

 Rottormund differs from Mr. Logan and Mr. MuiTay in some 

 of the theoretical conclusions at which those gentlemen have 

 arrived ; and as to the results of Jlr. Hunt's department of 

 the Survey, the Count does not think them worth "any serious 

 attention." It is quite unnecessary to make any further 

 comment upon Count dc Rottcrmund's evidence. 



yVo now proceed to notice as fully as our space will pennit 

 Mr. Hunt's replies to the questions put by the Committee. 

 With reference to the inqKU'tant scientific and economic result.s 

 which have been developed by the Canadian ISeological Survey 

 Mr. Hunt enumerates among others the foUowina; : — 



I may in the first place allude to the investigations of the altered or 

 metamorphic rocks, which are found in Lower Canada on the South 

 side of the St. Lawrence. These rocks are a prolongation of the Green 

 Mountains, and form the north eastern extremity of the Great Appal- 

 lachiiin Chain, itself the most important Geographical and Geological 

 feature of Eastern North America. The crystalline rocks, which are 

 economically of great consequence from their mines of iron, chrome, 

 lead, copper and gold, and their beds of fine marbles, serpentines, 

 soapstones, slates, &c., had been regarded by the American Geologists 

 as primary strata, that is to say, more ancient than those oldest secon- 

 dary rocks, in which are found the first vestiges of organic life. 

 Although some few had ventured the opinion that they were really 

 more recent strata in an altered state, the facts in support of such a 

 novel proposition had not been brought forward, and the opinion of 

 their primary character was still generally received. 



It was reserved for Mr. Logan in his researclies in the Eastern 

 Townships of Canada in 1847 and 1848, to show that the Geology of 

 that region furnished the key to a correct understanding of the age 

 and Geological structure of the whole Appallachian Chain, and to de- 

 monstrate by a most minute and Laborious investigation, that those so 

 called primary rocks were really no other than the Silurian strata of 

 the St. Lawrence valley in an altered condition. lie has traced the 

 gradual changes by which these fossiliferous sandstones and shales 

 become the gneissoid, micaceous, and chloritic strati of the Green 

 Mountains. In the course of this investigation, the results of the 

 chemical examination of the unaltered strata were brought to bear 

 upon the great question, and we were enable to shew that the chromium, 

 the titanium, and the iron, whose compounds in a crj-stalline form were 

 regarded as characteristic of some of these altered rocks, exist already 

 in an amorphous condition in the unaltered strata. 



As one result of this investigation may .also be mentioned the deter- 

 mination of the true nature and origin of the serpentine of this 

 formation. Serpentine is a magnesian mineral, which the highest 

 authorities in the science have hitherto regarded as in all cases of 

 igneous origin, and an intrusive rock like ti'ap or granite. We have 

 shown that in the Appallachian Chain, it is really a stratified rock of 

 aqueous origin, and h.ave actually assigned its true place in the Silurian 

 strata. Our researches have moreover shown that the magnesia, which 

 enters into the composition of the serpentine and its associated dolo- 

 mites and talcose slates, was not introduced subsequently to the 

 decomposition of the rocks, as is supposed in the theory of von Euch, 

 hitherto generally adopted, but that it formed a part of tlie original 

 sedimentary deposit. This conclusion I regard as an important step 

 towards a more simple and rational theory of mineral metaniorphism, 

 than the one hitherto received. 



The establishment of the metamorphic nature and the true age of 

 the crystalline rocks of Eastern North America, from the Gulf of the 

 St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, is the more important from the 

 grand exemplification which it affords of the metamorphic theory. 

 Hitherto, although the existence of such changes was considered pro- 

 bable, the cases in which the fact of .alteration had been )n-oved were 

 but few, and confined to limited areas. Portions of the Alps of Savoy 

 and Switzerland, and the marbles of Carrara in Italy, had been shown 

 to be altered secondary strata, but most Geologists liave liitherto been 

 unwilling to accept the hold generalizations of Lyell, and extend a 

 similar view to wide spread areas. The results of our Survey, which 

 have shown the truth of this view as applied to a great portion of the 

 Western Continent, have now placed the theory on an assured basis. 



.\nothor interesting investigation has been that of the Laurentides. 

 This mountainous region, stretchingfrom theGulf west to Lake Huron, 

 is composed of the oldest known rocks, not only of North Amci-ica, 

 but of the globe. On this continent, they are so far as yet known 

 confined to British America, except a prolongation into northern New 

 York, and perhaps some exposures west of the Mississippi, while in 

 the old world they have been recognized only in Scandinavia, Finland 

 and northern Russia, and perhaps in the north of Scotland. These 

 rocks have never hitherto been carefully investigated, and a partial 

 examination in the state of New Yoi-k, liad led an American Geologist 

 to regard them as of igneous origin, and to look upon the crystalline 

 limestones and hypcrsthene rocks, with their associated iron ore?, as 

 alike intrusive. The researches of our Survey have shown that these 

 nnti(|ue portions of the earth's crust are, not less than the rocks of 

 the Eastern Townships, metamorphic sedimentary deposits, and indi- 

 cate the existence at the remote epoch of their formation, of Physical 

 and Chemical conditions similar to those, which have nccompauiod all 

 the succeeding Geological periods. 



Airieralogically. the investigation of the so-called hypcrslhonc rocks 



