CHARACTER AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE SANDS. 215 
well developed in the lower Ottawa basin, forming extensive areas through- 
out the country, both to the north and south of the river below Ottawa 
city. 
In places they are loosely coherent, and when once disturbed they blow 
about under the action of the wind like fine snow. Good illustrations 
of this feature are seen to the eastward of the village of Lachute on the 
north side, as well as at several points on the south side of the Ottawa 
river, where the sands often form large areas through which the streams 
have cut deep channels into the underlying clays. 
The country north of the Ottawa for the first 40 miles is generally hilly 
and rough. North of this the surface assumes more the aspect of plains, 
consisting largely of these sands, through which hill ranges and isolated 
peaks protrude, some of which reach elevations of 2,500 feet above the 
sea. This character of country extends from the vicinity of Rouge river 
on the east to beyond lake Temiscaming on the west, and extends north 
as far as our observations have been made. 
. On the south side of the Ottawa this sandy character is also well seen 
along the upper portion of the river, about the Petewawa, and in the 
area between this stream and the Bonnechére. In some of the rivers, 
like the Black, the stream flows almost entirely between banks of sand, 
except where heavy rapids and falls are caused by rocky spurs from the 
adjacent mountains which form barriers across the course of the river. 
FossILIFEROUS CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CLAYS AND SANDS 
The clays of the lower Ottawa and Saint Lawrence basins frequently 
contain marine shells, though this feature is by no means of universal 
occurrence. The deposition of these clays about the city of Montreal 
has been well stated in the ‘“‘ Geology of Canada” (1863), as also by Sir 
William Dawson in his “‘ Canadian Ice Age” (page 201). From the lat- 
ter we find that marine shells are well exposed on the slopes of the Mon- 
treal mountain at.an elevation of 560 feet above present sealevel, while 
markings, indicating the presence of floating ice, are recognized at an 
elevation of 750 feet. Throughout this district there are great expanses 
of marine clays which show no trace of organisms, while very often the 
overlying sands and gravels hold great quantities of marine fossils. Well 
established outcrops of these shell-bearing sands are found along the 
upper Ottawa at elevations of 470 feet along the summit of rocky ridges 
west of Arnprior, while the clays in the valley alongside are apparently 
barren. The most westerly point where shell-bearing clays were noted 
in this direction was near the village of Bryson, about 50 miles west of 
Ottawa, where a small outcrop of shells was seen on the road east of the 
