132 



coast on the north-west side is occupied by the Black Eiver and Trenton 

 limestones ; and the Hudson River group is said to appear in cliffs twenty 

 feet high at the Stone Port (now called Lower Fort Garry) on the Red 

 River and near the rapids. 



The fossils collected by Professor Hind and Mr. Fleming from the 

 limestones and sandstones of Lake Winnipeg, as identified or described 

 by E. Billings in this Report, are as follows : — From Punk Island, two 

 species of fucoids " resembling forms which occur in the Chazy sand- 

 stone"; "columns of a large Glyptocrinus allied to G. ramulosus" ; "twa 

 specimens of a plaited Rhynchonelld a little smaller than R. plena" ; a 

 new species of Modiolopsis described under the name M. parviuscula, but 

 not figured; a. Fleurotomaria "allied to P. rotuloides. Hall"; "a Maclurea 

 allied to M. Logani, Salter, but with more slender whorls," and a small 

 Serpulites ''which much resembles the large species from the Chazy lime- 

 stone." Prom Grindstone Point, a coral "allied to Columnaria alveolata" ; 

 columns of a large Olyptocrinus, the same as those from Punk Island; and 

 plates of a Glyptocystites "closely allied to G. muUiporus." From Cat 

 Head, a new species of Orthoceras, described and figured under the name 

 0. Simpsoni. From Limestone Point (now known as Clark's Point) about 

 eleven miles north of the mouth of the Little Saskatchewan, Trochonema 

 umbilicatum (Hall), and a Maclurea like that from Punk Island. Accord- 

 ing to Mr. Billings, the occurrence of Modiolopsis parviuscula, Trochonema 

 umbilicatum, the Maclurea and Glyptocystites "are quite sufficient to show 

 that the localities where they have been collected are Lower Silurian, and 

 most probably about the age of the Black River and Chazy limestones." 

 Fortunately, most of these fossils are still preserved in the Museum of 

 this Survey. 



The occurrence of limestone " in situ " in the Red River valley, at or 

 near the locality now known as Lower Fort Garry, was noticed by 

 Major Long in 1823, during his expedition to the source of the St. 

 Peter's River. Keating, in the second volume (page 75) of his narrative 

 of that expedition, published two years later, says of this limestone that 

 it is a " horizontal secondary rock, such as probably lies under these 

 prairies.'' "We observed," he adds, "in the limestone no organic 

 remains, although it probably contains some." 



The fossiliferous character of these limestones seems to have been first 

 discovered by D. Dale Owen in July, 1848, for in chapter 4, pages 180 

 and 181 of his Report of a Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa and 

 Minnesota, published at Philadelphia in 1852, the following passage 

 occurs : "About twenty miles below the mouth of the Assiniboine, near 

 Lower Port Garry, solid ledges of limestone are exposed, of a light buff 

 colour, sometimes mottled, spotted or banded with light brown. Imme- 



