552 CENOZOIC TIME — MAMMALIAN AGE. 



above the river, or 20 feet more for each above Lake St. Peter ; west of Mon- 

 treal, near Kemptville, at a height of 250 feet; in Winchester, 300; in Kenyon, 

 270 ; in Lochiel, 264 and 290; at Hobbes Falls in Fitzroy, 350; at Dulham Mills, 

 289; in the counties of Renfrew, Lanark, Carlton, and Leeds, 425; east of Mon- 

 treal, near Upton Station, 257; farther east, on the river Grouffre, near Mur- 

 ray Bay, 130 and 360 feet. 



The 100 foot level near Montreal was apparently beneath the sea at the time, 

 as the shells in which it abounds are not littoral species, neither are the speci- 

 mens water-worn. At Beauport, near Quebec, there are thick beds of this kind, 

 mostly made of shells, partly littoral, and situated at a height of 200 to 400 

 feet above the sea. The depth of water inferred for these deep-sea beds by 

 Dawson from the species of shells is 100 to 300 feet. Dawson makes the marine 

 formation in Canada to consist (1) of the deep-water clays just mentioned, which 

 he calls Lecla clays, from one of the fossils ; (2) the overlying shallow-water 

 sands and gravels, called also the Saxicava sand. 



The more common shells of the Montreal beds are the following : — Saxicava 

 rvgosa, Mya truncata, Tellina Groenlandica, Astarte Laurentiana, Ifytilus edulis, 

 Mya arenaria, Tellina calcarea, Natica clausa, and Leda Portlandica, — the last 

 a deep-water species. Among the Beauport species there are the following : — ■ 

 Natica Groenlandica, N. Heros, Turritella erosa, Scalaria Groenlandica, Lit- 

 torina palliata, Cardium Groenlandicum, Cardium Islandicum, Pecten Islandicus, 

 Phynchonella psittacea, Echinus granidatus. All are cold-water species, and 

 more like those of the open sea-shore than the kinds found at Montreal, corre- 

 sponding with the fact that Montreal is 150 miles northwest of Beauport (Daw- 

 son). The same kinds are common also in the Maine beds. The species thus 

 far discovered, with perhaps one or two exceptions, are identical with those 

 now inhabiting the Labrador seas. 



The Gapelin (a common fish on the Labrador coast) has been found fossil on 

 the Chaudiere Lake in Canada, 183 feet above Lake St. Peter; on the Mada- 

 waska, 206 feet; at Fort Colonge Lake, 365 feet. 



The facts indicate that salt waters spread over a large coast-region 

 of Maine, and up the St. Lawrence nearly to Lake Ontario, and 

 covered also Lake Champlain, besides several Canada lakes. This 

 great arm of the sea, nearly 500 feet deep at Montreal and in 

 Lake Oham plain, was frequented by whales and seal : remains of 

 both kinds have been found near Montreal, and a large part of the 

 skeleton of a whale — Beluga Vermontana Thompson (fig. 840) — has 

 been dug up on the borders of Lake Champlain, 60 feet above its 

 level, or 150 above that of the ocean. 



II. General Observations. 



American Geography. — The close approximation in height be- 

 tween the alluvial and sea-shore formations in the same latitudes, 

 and the parallel increase of height on going north, show that all 

 belong to a common epoch, and have, in one sense, a ^common 



