324 The American Geologist. May, 1894 
but in other regions fossiliferous strata are known which are not a 
whit less ••crystalline schists" than the Coutchiching rocks. 
In my judgment there is no portion of the Archaean to which the 
term crystalline schists can be appropriately applied to the ex- 
clusion of the other parts. There are true crystalline schists in 
all parts of that complex. The term '•schist-granite-gneiss com- 
plex '" which Prof. Van Hise uses to describe the Archaean is ap- 
propriate and is graphically expressive of the salient features of 
the Archaean. The error which he falls into is in not recognizing 
that the Keewatin is part and parcel of that " schist-granite-gneiss 
complex." The second proposition which Prof. Van Hise uses 
as a basis of argument is that the physical break which he de- 
scribes between his Upper and Lower Vermilion is the equivalent 
of the break between the Animikie and Keewatin. That also is 
an erroneous idea. I have little or no doubt of the reality of the 
break which Prof. Van Hise describes not only in Minnesota but 
elsewhere. I have been cognizant of evidence of such a break 
since the summer of 1889 which I spent in the Hunter's Island 
country. I interpret the unconformity in Ontario and Minnesota, 
however, very differently from Prof. Van Hise. The position 
assigned to this break by Prof. Van Hise leads him to correlate 
the " Upper Vermilion" fragmental rocks and those at Kamminis- 
tiquia with the Animikie. A study of the stratigraphy of the 
region has demonstrated to me that such a correlation contradicts 
the facts. At Gunflint lake, on the International Boundary, the 
Animikie rests on the Archaean, here composed of a complex of 
Laurentian granite-gneiss and Keewatin schists, in pronounced 
unconformity. The Archaean schist-granite-gneiss complex was 
profoundly denuded before the deposition of the Animikie which 
lies in almost undisturbed attitudes on its truncated edges. This 
unconformity has often been described and never questioned. 
Now, the same Laurentian granite has been traced by me in 
well bared, continuous exposures from Gunflint lake for 15 miles to 
the north side of Saganaga lake where it is again seen bursting 
through the Keewatin schists with abundant and clearly observable 
evidence of irruption. Included in the Keewatin rocks are the ' • Up- 
per Vermilion " fragmental rocks or Ogishke conglomerates with 
their associated grits and slates. The conglomerates come di- 
rectly against the granite and the latter is irruptive through the 
whole. Thus the Ogishke conglomerate is older than the Saga? 
