240 TJie Afnenca?i Geologist. October, i899 
of tlie whole Dominion, from a purely palaeontological stand- 
])oint. may be thus briefly summarized. We now possess a 
fairly satisfactory knowledge of the fossils of the Devonian 
rocks of Ontario, and of the relations which these rocks bear 
to the typical section in the state of New York. The fossil 
plants of the Gaspe sandstones have been descrilied and figured 
by Sir William Dawson, and the remarkable assemblages of 
fossil fishes from the Upper Devonian of Scaumenac bay and 
Lower Devonian near Campbellton have been worked out 
somewhat exhaustively, the earlier collections in Canada, and 
the later ones by the best ichthyological authorities in London 
and Edinburgh. We have now some idea of the fossil favma 
of the Manitoba Devonian, and have added materially to our 
knowledge of the fossils of the Devonian rocks of the Atha- 
basca and Mackenzie River districts. But, on the other hand, 
our knowledge of the organic remains of the Devonian of 
Nova Scotia is still in its infancy, and it would seem that the 
plant-bearing beds near St. John. N. B., which have so long 
been regarded as Devonian, may possibly be Carboniferous. 
In the Rocky Mountain region of Alberta we have not always 
succeeded in distinguishing Devonian rocks from Carbonifer- 
ous, and we have yet to obtain a much fuller knowledge than 
we now possess of the Devonian fossils of Keewatin and the 
area to the southwest of James bay. 
Ottawa, June 28, i8gg. 
THEGOLD-BEARING FORMATION OF STEPHEN- 
SON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 
By Oscar H. Heeshet, Freeport, 111. 
Within the past several years, there have been occasional 
reports of the discovery of gold-bearing quartz in the solid- 
rock formations of a certain district in the western part of 
Stephenson county, in northwestern Illinois. I was long 
sceptical of the reality of these supposed finds, but -recently the 
stories have been told in such detail, and have created local 
excitements of such a nature as to induce me, out of mere 
curiosity, to make a partial investigation of the matter. The 
