278 B. Chalmers — Pre- Glacial Decay of Rocks. 



sedentary materials and non-glaciated rock surfaces were ob- 

 served. 



Beneath the bowlder-clay in this section we have, therefore, 

 a thickness of about 45 feet of assorted, water-worn, stratified 

 deposits, apparently all derived from sedentary, decayed rock 

 material. The lower portions are coarse and oxidized through- 

 out, the upper mostly finer and showing less oxidation, having 

 evidently been laid down in deeper and quieter waters. These 

 appear to rest upon denuded beds of rotten rock and non- 

 glaciated rock surfaces. No fossil remains have yet been 

 detected in them ; but they are probably of Tertiary age. It 

 is not unlikely that they are the equivalents of certain beds 

 discovered many years ago at the western base of the Green 

 Mountains at Brandon, Vermont. These were said to form a 

 deposit lying beneath the bowlder-clay and resting upon the 

 solid rocks, which showed gravel and sand with kaolin or porce- 

 lain clay, and lignite or fossil wood, as well as several other 

 oxidized materials. Fossil fruits were also discovered there, 

 from which Mr. Lesquereux was led to refer the beds to the 

 Miocene.* 



In the valley of the Little Ditton River, oxidized pre-glacial 

 materials, carrying gold, were also noted. Like those of 

 Riviere Du Loup, they are chiefly of alluvial origin, but the 

 portions resting immediately upon the rough, broken, jagged 

 surfaces of the non-glaciated slates were sedentary. 



Beyond the limits of the "Eastern Townships" so called, 

 these materials were observed in a great number of places in 

 southeastern Quebec not only in valleys, but on the hillsides 

 and at the base of declivities, where they have been, in some 

 way, protected from denudation. They were noted on Orleans 

 Island, in Montmagny county, also near Riviere du Loup, Inter- 

 colonial railway, and at Little Metis. Indeed, many parts of the 

 Notre Dame Range, on the St. Lawrence slope, exhibit more or 

 less pre-glacial rock debris in situ with talus at the base, the glaci- 

 ation here having been produced chiefly by northward moving 

 ice which failed to remove it. 



In the Gaspe peninsula similar decomposition products occur 

 in some localities, and certain non-glaciated marginal areas 

 were seen along the coast. The most remarkable example of 

 this kind met with is on the point of land terminating in Cape 

 Gaspe. This point has never been glaciated, and is covered 

 with decayed rock material and devoid of bowlder-clay. We 

 have here a remnant of the land surface in the same condition 

 as it was in the Tertiary period. 



Local sheets of these decayed rock materials were first noted 



* Geology of Canada, 1863, p. 929. 



