16 p 
EKWAN RIVER 
Limestones 
outcrop at 
Middle rapid. 
Similar to 
limestones on 
Attawapiskat 
river. 
Favoaites Hisingeri ; Trimerella boreal U ; lieticularia septentrionalis r 
Enomp/ialue indet. ; undBrontens E/cu'anensis. 
In the ne.xt ten miles, which is the distance to the pottage at a series 
of hoavY rapids, there are two stiff rapids at which the limestones out- 
crop. At the hea\icstof these, called the Middle rapid, the fall amounts 
to approximately live feet. The beds exposed here are thicker and con- 
tain many more fossil remains than at the fimt rapid — The fossils are 
}>rincipally large trilobites and corals, as in the following list : Fpirifer 
crigpiis ; Jieticularia asplenlrionalis : Salpingostoma boreale ; Diapho. 
rostoma pirforatnm ; 1‘hraginncerns lineolahirn ; IlUvnus sp. indet. ; 
and Brnnl^uH Ekimnensis. 
Al)Ove this the banks gradually rise in a series of steps to thirty feet, 
which ndght be taken a.s an indication of an old shore line. 
Th« portage mentioned above is on the northern side of the river. 
Here the stream has cut a shallow gorge through the limestone. This 
ha.s been slowly widened, and is the tirst indication of age that the 
river, thus far has shown. Below this, from the sea up stream, the river- 
channel is new — that is to .say, it is still wearing down the sides of the 
valley and i.s bordered by cut-hanks. The material thu.s fed into the 
river is being rapidly removed, ami there is little of it deposited till 
the sea is reachetl. 
The rapids below tlie portage show a certain amount of river wear, 
but not so pronounced as at the portage. The beds cut are not 
deposited in a regular manner, but are disarranged owing to the local 
development of coral reefs, which give the immediately overlying beds 
the appearance of having been disturbed and bent. These same litne- 
.stonos on the Attawapiskat river, just to the south, are described l)y 
T)r. Bell as cavernous lime.stones. It would seem that the more porous, 
or what seem to bo the coralline nmsse.s, weather much more ea.dly 
than the thinner beds. On thi.s river there are no caverns, a.s the 
valley is not eroded deeply enough to expose much of the rock. The 
bods below the coral reef at the portage are thin and lying nearly 
horizontal, but above the portage the beds are thicker and contain a 
very numerous assortment of remains of gastroj>ods and corals. The 
collections made here for the pui'pose of detertnining the horizon were 
mostly from the rocks near the upper end of the portage road. The 
list of species determined or described by Dr. Whiteaves, and published 
as a supplement to this report, in his opinion indicates a horizon rather 
high up in the Silurian. 
Those which occur at this part of the river are given in the following 
list : — 
