130 
other portions show little or no evidence of this, being 
massive jointed clays. They are very plastic when 
tempeied with water and when mixed with a small 
proportion of sand are easily moulded. They are impure 
and easily fusible, so that no higher grade of structural 
wares than common brick or field drain tiles can be made 
from them. 
LocAL DESCRIPTIONS. 
The best known localities for marine clay near Ottawa 
are Green’s creek and the shore of Ottawa river at Bes- 
serer’s wharf, a few miles below the city. At these localities 
the clay affords great numbers of calcareous concretions 
which are often found to contain the skeleton of a fish, 
the commonest species being the capelin still numerous 
in the lower St. Lawrence. Other nodules have been 
found to contain plant remains and a considerable flora has 
been obtained from them. Insects, feathers, bones of 
birds and bones of seals are found also, but very rarely. 
The clay in this vicinity is known to have a thickness 
of at least 140 feet (42-6 m.). The river is here about 
118 feet (36-0 m.) above the sea, and the clay banks rise 
from 20 to 40 feet (6-I to I2-2 m.) above the water. 
Similar concretions have been found up the Ottawa river, 
about 60 miles (96-5 m.) northwest of the city, where they 
occur at an elevation of 370 feet (112-7 m.). 
The marine clays are well seen in terraces along Gati- 
neau river a short distance north of Hull. Brickyards 
in Ottawa also give excellent exposures of the clay from 
which a great number of marine fossils have been obtained, 
including several species of shells, silicious spicules of 
a sponge and foraminifera. Altogether 28 kinds of plants 
and at least 33 animals are known to occur in these clays. 
It should be stated, however, that the great mass of the 
clay is almost barren of fossils and, except in favoured 
localities, the marine fossils are mostly confined to the 
sandy layers near the top of the deposit. 
The clay, which is looked upon as a comparatively 
deep water deposit, is overlain by stratified sands and 
gravels which were in part deposited along shore lines 
and as shoals in shallow water during the period of emer- 
gence of the land. Marine shells are common in the 
sands at some localities and are as a rule most numerous 
