392 Geological Society .•— 



tance of 1^ to 2 miles from the north shore of Thunder Bay, 

 the mines in which, although quite in their infancy, promise 

 excellent results. Its wid this 22 feet; and the vein-stuff consists 

 mainly of calc-spar. The silver is present in the native form and as 

 sulphide. The vein traverses hard black shales, but does not run 

 exactly along the strike of the beds ; it may be traced for several 

 miles towards the east. 



The country between Thunder Bay and Lake Shabendowan, along 

 the " Dawson Boad," is of an undulating character ; and the surface 

 of its fundamental rocks everywhere exhibits unmistakable evidences 

 of glaciation, the general direction of the striae being N. and S., but 

 with the occasional occurrence of a minor set of grooves running 

 nearly E. and W. The greater part of the country is thickly 

 covered with drift, composed of rocks which appear to have travelled 

 from north to south. 



The rocks passed over between Thunder Bay and Lake Shabendowan 

 are described by the author as, 1, the shales and traps of the 

 " Lower Copper-bearing series ; " 2, a range of syenitic and gneissic 

 rocks, probably of Laurentian age ; 3, a great series of rocks belong- 

 ing to the Huronian group, consisting of greenish or grey slates, with 

 bands of gneiss and trap dykes, and bedded green traps with great 

 masses of greenish, grey, or drab-coloured slates, the whole presenting 

 a close resemblance to the green slates and porphyries of the English 

 Lake district. The slates, in the author's opinion, are bedded fel- 

 spathic ashes. 



The author described the general characters of Lake Shabendowan, 

 and stated that from the foot of the Lake for about 15 miles westward 

 there is a succession of trappean rocks, beyond which, to the head of 

 the lake, distant 13 miles, the country is occupied by Huronian slates 

 like those between the lake and Thunder Bay. These slates extend 

 for an unknown distance north-west of the head of the lake, and con- 

 tain numerous veins, having an E.N.E. and W.S.W. direction, con- 

 formable with the strike of the beds; and some of them are auriferous. 

 The vein-stuff is quartz containing copper pyrites ; the gold is con- 

 tained in the copper pyrites, or disseminated in very minute grains 

 through the quartz. Several of these veins are being worked ; and 

 their peculiarities were noticed by the author. 



2. " Note on the Relations of the supposed Carboniferous Plants 

 of Bear Island with the Palaeozoic Flora of North America." Bv 

 J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., E.G.S. 



The author referred to Dr. Heer's paper on the Carboniferous 

 Flora of Bear Island (see Q. J. G. S. vol. xxviii. p. 161), and stated 

 that the plants cited by Dr. Heer as characteristic of his " Ursa 

 stage," are in part representatives of the American flora belonging 

 to what the author has called the " Lower Carboniferous Coal- 

 measures " (Subcarboniferous of Dana). He considered that the 

 presence of Devonian forms was due either to the mixture of fossils 

 from two distinct but contiguous beds, or to the fact that in these 

 high northern latitudes there was an actual intermixture of the two 



