<>, >gy of Portion of Province of Quebec 107 



In the Report of Progress for 1849, the entire Quebec series 

 of strata were described, and these rocks, in a highly metamor- 



phio condition, were also stated to constitute the mountain l>elt ; 

 and the entire mass of supposed altered and unaltered rockfl 

 were referred to the Lower Silurian System. 



When the Quebec Group was established in L861, the great 

 area of crystalline schists and associated rocks of the mountain 

 portion o\ Quebec were regarded as the metamorphic equiva- 

 lents of the fossi life reus rocks of the vicinity of Quebec, and 

 hence a portion of the Quebec Group. The Sutton .Mountain 

 range, or the Canadian extension of the Green Mountains, was 

 Bupposed to represent a portion, if not the whole, of the Sillerv 

 formation. To the southwest, the Quebec Group was made to 

 include the Phillipsburgh limestones and certain supposed 

 superjacent conglomerates. To the east, in Newfoundland, 

 a great thicknesss of fossiliferous strata were correlated with 

 the Point Levis and Sillerv sections. 



From the comparison of the fossils occurring in the Point 

 Levis series with those from the Phillipsburgh limestones, Bil- 

 lings concluded that limestone No. l?, of the Point Levis series, 

 was the equivalent of limestone Xo. 2, of the Phillipsburgh 

 section. Dr. Ells calls attention to the fact that limestone Xo. 

 >f the Levis section, was formed of beds of conglomerate, 

 and could not be relied upon for the determination of the 

 exact strati oraphic position of the zone in the Phillipsburgh 

 section. In summing up all the evidence in relation to the 

 position of the Levis rocks, Dr. Ells says: "It will be seen 

 from all the evidence adduced from so many sources that the 

 true position of the Levis was very conclusively established, 

 both on paleontological and stratigraphical grounds, as dis- 

 tinctly newer than the Calciferous, and this conclusion has been 

 sustained by the most recent examination." 



Such is a brief outline sketch of Dr. Ells's historical review 

 of the " Quebec Group " to the year 1868. It is the history of 

 the theoretic evolution of a group of strata based largely upon 

 lilhologic resemblances and structural geology. 



We have next to consider the breaking down of this elabo- 

 rately constructed geologic group, built up by the labors of Sir 

 Wm. E. Logan and his associates, Mr. E. Billings. Dr. T. S. 

 Hunt and Mr. James Richardson. 



Dr. A. R. C. Selwyn began the work of disintegration in 

 the Report of Progress, L8TT-78, pp. 3A.— 9A, where lie bIiows 

 that the rocks of the Canadian extension of the Green Mount- 

 ain range, or the Sutton Mountain range and its northeasterly 

 extension, were arranged in an anticlinal, instead of a syn- 

 clinal form, as supposed by Logan. This removed the key- 

 stone upon which the stratigraphic structure of the altered 



