«*s " E*&._i*m iatA ■«^w- * -x t'"^c^^: v > > 0 . r 4 v Q\ \«ifi WHITNEY LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. THE GIFT OF J. D. WHITNEY, Sturgis Hooper Professor MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY $WwkM,\^ ^v,-W? i ■ \- DC O h- 1 ■** o o o o ta OJ ?^ OS o o >e © cni CO 3 in d oo d ffl n l£5 TJ o oomo^ o o C<1 Jt- O C3 i— 1 o § §# C-5 ■u 6 'S ^ Z o ^ ^ a, w < m : X ^Kj H Hw .2 ' ."« H ©^ O CO " fi , , CO * £ M •d a -a CO = fe o S o (3 P < 35 , O 3 -tj bo v. « >->2 x ID s a u E- a 0 ^ ■§ -2 £ O M CJ CO 00 5 ci' h « s rt 00 & 8 - ^ ^ O .s £ ~J |^"S CO CO o3 CO H- C r* U ^ N e § S c? H U — ' D K 1 O S > s •n "cS 1 "5 *- c A - - - g o o o 4 pc 4 06 2 p: CO ^ c OOMTfWOOK o « c c h- 1 OS o c O M N 5) ft O If c^ o CC IC c »T C°- o c ' d ci oo co ^ oi n 6 1 o- ce o c- m' o c ONMOCOiO^O 05 rr CC c ° o T < C 1 • ~~> c t r^ ■? c ~ c I 9 a QC > v- J O e 0 W. PAssmore, ote, commission Coal and wood 03 — p PP S a > r % • ■ >ome shade of green like that of the melaphyres^ both locks containing much iron, which is sometimes present as minute grains of magnetite. According to Macfarlaue the analysis of a coarse variety of melaphyre gave : Delessite, Labradorite, Pyroxene or Hornblende Magnetite, 100.00 46.36 47.43 5.26 0.95 ) THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viil. The composition of the delessite, he gives as follows : Silica, 31.78 Alumina, - 15.47 Ferrous Ox?de, .... 28.87 Lime, - ... 9.64 Magnesia, - 4.37 Water, - ... 9.87 The amygdaloid consists of Delessite, - - - - - 38.00 Labradorite, - - - 62.00 lOO.Od 100.00 Among the silicates occurring in the amygdaloids are Epidott% Prehnife, Lavmonite, Anulcite, Datolite, &c. Besides these, Heulandite, Chahazite, ApophyUite, Stilbite, Natrollte, Leon- hardite, Mesolite, &c, are obtained from the fissure veins. The conglomerates are principally composed of brown fel- sitic pebbles, often with small imbedded crystals of triclinio feldspars. Occasionally the pebbles are bright flesh red, deriv- ed from minute crystals of feldspar of that color. Sometimes the pebbles are of aniygdaloidal trap. The matrix is generally dark brown having a texture from sub crystalline to almost * compact vitreous mass. In some localities the pebbles contain no free silica, while in others the rocks are almost jispcry. The cement is fine grained, and is either siliceous, chloritic, epidotio, cupriferous particles, or else it consists of the comminuted mater- ial of the pebbles. As noticed by Pumpelly, the aniygdaloidal conglomerates can often be traced over several miles, as the filling of different beds is sometimes uniform over a considerable distance. The felsitic and jaspery pebbles of certain conglome- rates appear to have been derived from Huronian rocks, which were exposed somewhat beyond the limits of the igneous over- flows during the period of time under consideration. The sandstones are usually of a brick red color, although some of the beds are light yellowish. The sediments of which these rocks are made up has been principally derived from the material of the conglomerates. The beds have frequently a slaty charac- ter, the argillaceous material being derived from the decomposi- tion of the feldspars. Some of the beds, as at Copper Falls, show their shallow water origin, as they have ripple and raia drop markings, and mud cracks The limits of the sandstone strata are usually well defined, although some of the beds seem to be uuited with the overlying melaphyres, as if the porous sand No. 2.] SPENCER— COPPER-BEARING ROCKS. 61 stone had been permeated by the liquid trap which has since been converted into the mehphyres. On the north shore of the Lake the variety of the sedimentary rocks is somewhat greater. As shown by Bell, to the above list may be added d irk m issive argillites, and flaggy black shales, Slaving the miss divided by numerous vertical joints, red shales* red and white dolomitic sandstones, reddish compact limestones, and red and yellowish-gray marls. c. — Geological Structure, — The typical series of the copper- bearing rocks on the South Shore has a great development, hav" Ing an average width of six miles. It is more than 150 miles long, and its thickness, as shown by the Geological Survey, is not less than 15,000 feet, or nearly three miles. The greatest thickness Is to the northward. The range of hills, made up of the de- posits of the Nipigon or Copper-bearing Period, has a trend of about N.P].. while the dip is N.W., at angles varying from 60 to 25 degrees, flattening out to the north-eastward. The lapse of time occupied for the deposition of so much material must have been very great. During all this time there were long series of submarine volcanic eruptions, which, occasionally ceasing to act, permitted the abrading forces to be forming the pebbles which were deposited in the shallow seas to form what arc now the intercalated beds of conglomerates and sand- stones. A gradual subsidence was going on while the seas were getting filled with so much igneous and sedimentary matter. The deposition of the sandstones was comparatively rapid, and the time was insufficient for the bleaching of the red rocks by decompos- ing organic remains, if they were present, The whole series, made up of alternate layers of igneous and sedimentary rocks, has Its respective b^ds conformable, although the individual mem- bers are not uniformly deposited. Thus the Allouez Conglo- merate can be traced lor thirty miies from Portage Lake north- eastward, having a thickness of 15-20 feet at the Allouez and Central Mines, a distance of 15 miles apart, while at the Phoenix Mine, between the two others, the stratum is represented by a fthin clay seam, a few inches thick. Again, the great Diorite Bed, which has a thickness of 1,200 feet at the Phoenix Mine, thins out at a distance of about twelve miles to the south westward of this mine, while it extends a long distance to the north-eastward. This large development of diorite consists of various beds having thicknesses varying from 10 to 400 feet, and characterized by rocks of various textures. 62 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. VUK Thus we pee that the gigantic forces at work, building up find carving out a monument of a long age, were not equally potent. The surfaces of ihe beds of sandstone in many places were sculptured before the succeeding deposits of igneous matter. The relative position of the melaphyres and amygdaloids is nearly constant; the former compact rocks being at the base, pass gradually through the various stages till the upper beds be- come perfectly amygdaloidal. The different b< ds vary in thick- ness from a few 1ele St. Ignace they "were to the north-eastward^ and to the east of the lake Sir William Logan showed them to> have had an easterly direction. Everywhere, on leaving the great lake ba-in, the Nipigon deposits thin out. Numerous trap dykes traverse this formation on the North Shore, but on the south side of the lake they do not appear to p;ss higher than the Huronian Series, while the veins are filled with metamorphosed aqueous infiltrations, or with the debris of the adjacent rocks. Both on the north and south shores of Lake Superior, the beds of the Nipigon Formation are considerably f.ulted. Be- tween the Phoenix and Central Mines ou Keweemiw Point, there 64 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vlli. is a horizontal dislocation of 400 feet, being equal to a down- throw of 200 feet. At Portage Lake the faulting amounts to over 700 feet horizontally. The effect of this fault has been to weaken the country, and since denuding agencies have made an excavation across Keweenaw Peninsula, having a depth of six or seven hundred feet through the Range. The lower portion of this valley is now occupied by Portage Lake. Bell has suggested that the igneous eruptions occurred within the present basin of Lake Superior. This was probably the case, and what is now the bed of the lake was the scene of action for some gigantic submarine volcanoes, which piled up two and a half or three miles of solid rocks. The axis of the great eruptions appears to have been somewhere between Keweenaw Point and Nipigon Bay, where were the thickest deposits, whence the ma- terial flowed all around, having a radius of 150-200 miles. It Is probable thatthegreat basin of Lake Superior, which is one of aqueous denudation, is due to the great weakening of this regio* by the numerous dykes and f.ults belonging to the Cambrian or Pre-Cambrian Ages, arising from the many channels of eruptions during those Ages; for while the crystalline Laurentian, Huronian, and some of the Nipigon Series of rocks, have with- stood so persistently the denuding agencies of countless /Eons, we find in the centre of them, the largest or one of the largest lake basins on our globe; and that the former scene of the greatest disturbance is now covered by the deeper waters of the lake. d. — Geological Age of the Nipigon or Copper- Bearing Series. — The Geological age of these rocks has long been an open ques- tion, as recourse to organic remains cannot be made. Nor is it probable that future researches will unveil many fossils, as the conditions of the seas were totally unfavourable to life. Ateack eruption all organisms would t nd to be destroyed. The red sandstones also indicate, at least, a scarcity of vegetable existence, and then the time elapsing between each period, when the sedi- mentary deposits were forming, were occupied by long successions of volcanic eruptions. However, in one of the sandstone beds, raear the top of the Cupriferous Series, over which the Eagle Kiver flows, and near its mouth, a Mr. Uren found an ob- jure fossil, but as he stated to me, he cared not for palaeontolo- gical remains and consequently gave it to auother gentleman, wh» was not scientific. Dr. Sterry Hunt also mentioned the possi- No. 2.] SPENCER — COPPER-BEARING ROCKS. 65 bility of the existence of some sponges in Michipicoten Island. I know of no other evidences of life during this period, unless the carbonaceous matter in the Lower Group of the Series on the North Shore points in this direction. Consequently it is stratigraphy and lithology that must disclose the venerable age of these interesting deposits. Pumpelly has recently shown that the Cupriferous and Huron- ian Series appear to be conformable, both in dip and strike, for a distance of 30 miles from the Montreal River, on the borders of Wisconsin, to Lake Gogebic — dipping northward at angles of from 50 to 70 degrees. This is the only known exposure of their junction on the South Shore. On the North Shore, Bell has ascertained that the Nipigon Series is unconformable to the Huronian in some places, while in others it rests on the upturn- ed edges of the Laurentian. Again the great horizontal trap overflows, which c ip so m my hills north of Lake Superior, are lancomformable to the other beds of the series. These capping trap beds are not present on the South Shore. The western side of the range, forming the backbone of Ke- weenaw Peninsula, is overlaid by sandstones similar to those of the Cupriferous Series and apparently conformable to it. East- ward of this range the shores of Like Superior are skirted by a narrow belt of red sandstones and shale>, dipping according to Pumpelly at angles varying from 5 to 15 degrees towards the lake basin. Over these red sandstones, the country east of the mineral ranges is covered with light colored sandstones, ofteu friable, which are deposited horizontally, and are supposed to belong to the Potsdam Period. They contain no fossils themselves, but are overlaid b}T ether rocks, containing a few organic remains, which have been referred to the Calciferousor Chazy Formation; and these are overlaid by the fossififerous Trenton deposits. The sandstones, on the east side of Keweenaw Point, overlie the Huronian deposits, and in many places contain pebbles of that series. It is not known if the Cupriferous rocks any where in- tervene between the sandstoues and the materials belonging to the Huronian Age ; but the western border of the sandstones abut against the upturned edges of the copper- bearing range, which dip away from them at angles varying from 40y to 60Q. By some it has been urged that the line or junction, between the igneous and sedimentary formations, represents the plane of a gigantic tUult, in which case there has been a down-throw whose 66 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viiL veriicn] depth would equal three miles or more. Near Houirhton, there are some isolated pitches of sandstone, which overlie beds of melaphyre,and contain numerous pebbles both of melaphyre and of Cupriferous Conglomerate, consequently showing their subsequent origin. As pointed cut by the Geologic 1 Survey, the Copper- Bearing Rocks were greatly sculptured before the deposition of the s nd-tones; as there are pi ces where the old hills were de- nuded leaving cliffs £00 feet high, having formed the old shore line, along which the Potsdam (?) deposits were b ing m ide. The lithologic 1 characters of the Cupriferous Rocks resemble those of the Permian and Tria-sic Periods. As shown by De~ lesse, Naumann, Macf.rlane, Bell and others, no rocks of similar lithological stiucture occur in any other part of the known world belonging to an older period than the Carboniferous or the Per- mian A»es. Now, if the Huronian Formation hid been thrown into its present position, or nearly so, before the deposition of the Cupriferous Series, and the horizontal sandstones east of the range did not bi ar evidences of a subsequent origin, (although only in a few small isolated pitches are they known to overlie directly the Copper- Bearing Formation), then there would be no stratigniphical grounds whatever for the determination of the a<_ie of the rocks under consideration, and we could only look to their lithological structure as a means of solving this interesting question. Again, M cfarlane points out the trachytic character of some of the rocks of this series which are situated on Michipicoten Inlands, and this resemblance to modern vol- canic products, which are not known to exist elsewhere in the Nipigon Series, might point to a comparatively recent d its. But. the most recent investigations on the South Shore, m.ide by Pumpelly and Brooks, go to shew that the Huronian Series, in part, had not been uplifted to any extent before the deposi- tion of the Nipigon or Copper- Bearing Rocks, as the two forma- tions are conform ble, and tilted together at higli angles, while afc no great distance from their junction, the Huronian is also con- torted aid oveil .id by the horizontal Potsdam (?) sandstones. As we have seen the range v»as sculptured before the deposition of the sandstones, and the m >re recent origin of the latter rocks appears to be addition illy confirmed by the isolated pitches near Houghton containing Cupriferous pebbles. If the ancient Mineral Range on Keweenaw Peninsula were not an old shore l.ne (of which there are numerous iudicutions), No. 2.] SPENCER — COPPER-BEARING ROCKS. 67 but a gigintie fault, then we should expect to fiid the deposits of the Nipigon Period, between the Huronian and subsequent sedimentary rocks father east along the south shore of Like Superior, but this is not the case. The trend of the rocks on Micliipicoten Isl .nd is very nearly the s une as that on Keweenaw Point, although they dip in the opposite direction. From this difference in direction of dip, and from the d/.ep w iter between the Point and the Island, I wou'd infer th it the old Cupriferous Range was much weikened and broken between these two pi ices, and subsequently was easily swept away by denuding agencies, leaving this deep portion of the 1 .ke b isin. The south-ea-tern portion of the Lake Superior Basin does not appear to h nifn/kite, besides the v rarious hydrous silic ites mentioned before, as well as the sulphides just referred to, h tve also been found ; silver, gold, and le id in vein form itions hive attracted consider- able attention. Native silver occurs associated with the metallic copper, b ing deposited in a pure state on the latter metd. The two metals are not alloyed, and their contact surfaces are perfectly distinct; the silver, usu.dly in arbore?ceut forms, projects from the copper. Recently, there has been considerable excitement over some silver-bearing veins which are situated in the Copper- Bearing Formation in Onton igon County. The prospects of these are said to be encour iging. The temperature of the rocks in which the copper mines are situated is low, and at a depth of 1,4-40 feet, it is scarcely higher than at the surface. Mr. Emerson made some experiments on this subject, by taking the temperature of the wTater which percolates through the rocks, entering the mines at different levels. He found that, the aver g temperature at different p] e of this low temp ^ra^ure m iy b ttributed to the fact that the region of Lake Superior, which was .-.o long subjected to igneous influences, and to great contortions of the earth's crust, has had very long ages during which it has parted with it* heat, and this has not been raised in recent geological times by the bendiug of the various strata. No. 2.J SPENCER — COPPER-MINING. 71 III. — Notes on Copper Mining in the Lake Superior Region. Under this head it is proposed to notice briefly the art of mining as it has been applied to the Native Copper Mines of Keweenaw Peninsula, and to give a short sketch of the finan- cial condition of the industry. Ordinary blasting powder is almost entirely used. Nitrogly- cerine and dualin have been introduced, but several accidents having occurred, their use has been abandoned. One of the most fatal of these accidents was at the Phoenix Mine, resulting in the death of two mining captains and four other men. This explosion took place in the office of the captains, while some men were mixing the dualin with ordinary blasting powder, as the mixture was usually fired with fusees and not by electricity. There was a quantity of dualin cartridges in the building when the accident happened, and although the concussion was so great as to throw them several hundred feet, to the top of a high cliff, many were afterwards picked up unexploded. In some places, dualin was found unsuitable for blasting, as the action was such as to bring down too much waste rock in certain directions, but elsewhere it has rendered good service. As noticed before, the copper is obtained from beds and veins. The beds which are worked dip at various angles from 26° (at the Copper Falls Mine) to 56° (at the Quincy), while the dip of the veins is usually greater than 73°. In almost all cases the shafts fallow the inclinations of the beds or veins, changing with their variations of dip; and in only a few instances are the shafts perpendicular or straight throughout their whole depth. Some shafts have been sunk without any engineering skill whatever, and after thousands of dollars have been wasted, have been abandoned, and others sunk at great expense, this being more economic il than to straighten those that were so crooked. The best work of engineering skill about Lake Superior is at the Phoenix Mine, where an additional shaft was required. The workings are on the side of a hill capped with a great thick- ness of greenstone, and it was found that it would be less expen- sive to sink a shaft at a low inclination, beneath the great bed of diorite, than to sink one perpendicularly through it. The mine Vol. VIII. e No. 2. 72 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vili. is on a fissure vein having a hade varying from perpendicular to 17°, and clown which an old inclined shaft had been sunk for 500 or 600 feet, so crookedly as to become useless. Under the charge of Mr. L. G. Emerson, M. E., a new shaft was begun in the hanging wall at such an angle with the direction of the vein that it would be only a few feet from each level, with which it was afterwards connected — the vein-stuff and walls disintegrating very rapidly on exposure to air and moisture. This was sunk with a dip of 35° 55' to a depth of 1300 feet (still being sunk), having a width of 8 and a length of 14 feet, costing without machinery, $76,000. The work was accomplished in 18 months, as several parties of men were beiug employed on different sections. The result was a perfectly straight shaft, now used for hoisting on one side, while on the other there is a stairway. The required timbering is very heavy in parts of its course. The sections of the shafts are usually from 7 by 12 feet to 8 by 14 feet, and divided in two parts, one for hoisting and the other for ladderways or pumps, excepting in those where man-engines are constructed. All the large mines have two or more shafts, but some have as many as nine or twelve, besides adits where practicable. The galleries or levels are usually 10 sometimes 15 fathoms apart (vertically), connected by occasional winzes for ventilation, and for other purposes while the mines are being opened, and are usually about 7 feet high and 5 feet wide, being traversed by iron tram-ways, leading to the shafts. The mining is almost always by overhand stopiug, and in some cases the old stopes are completely filled with the broken waste rock. All the material from one level to the next is removed, excepting what may be required for pillars, or may be too poor to be taken out, as the metal occurs in zones, often enclosing large areas of rock which would be unremunerative ; and some times even when two or three consecutive galleries have been driven for a long distance, the poverty of the rock compels large portions of the mines to be abandoned. In most cases the drilling is done by hand — one man striking and another turning the drill, or else two men striking alternately where the rock is hard. However, in several mines machine drills are used, especially in stopiug — the motive power being compressed air carried down by pipes from the surface, and No. 2.] SPENCER — COPPER-MIMING. 73 having a pressure of 60 pounds per square inch. Recently diamond drills have been introduced into the copper mines on Lake Superior for exploration purposes ; one being used in the Quincy Mine at a depth of 1600 feet for sectional examinations in place of the expensive cross-cutting. When we consider that none of the native copper mines (except the Calumet and Hecla) yield an average of two per cent of metal for all the rock broken, and also the great expense entailed in sinking and drifting through much poor rock, the only way to keep the mines success- fully iu operation is to open up two or three year's galleries ahead of the work, in order that when one remunerative area is exhausted, another may at once be ready for stoping, and thus a very considerable item in the annual expense of mining is expend- ed without any immediate returns. Sometimes the hanging walls are so strong that only pillars, at considerable distances apart, are required to support the roofs. But in 1872, a sad accident occurred on the Ash-Bed at Copper Falls. The pillars which had been left in part of the mine were insufficient, and a portion of the roof having an area of 200 by 300 feet fell, killing six or seven men, and entrapping others for several hours till released. However, this catastrophy could scarcely have been unexpected, for the pillars had been slowly but surely crushing and scaling off for more than a year, besides giving more recent indications. Seldom do large masses fall without giving warning, but the lives so exposed to danger come to be held cheaply, and work is often pursued in spite of every- thing, till either an accident happens, or at last prudence com- pels the dangerous parts to be abandoned, or the miners to be protected as much as possible. For this purpose I have known the openings to be completely filled with crib-work of timbers, at a very considerable expense. The workings of the veins and beds seldom exceed a width or height of from six to ten feet, although the seams sometimes widen to twenty feet or more. The wider veins are often poor in copper, while in the beds, the metal is usually confined to the upper portion of the amygdaloids or conglomerates. The veins have generally well marked walls, sometimes slickensided, while the metallic portions of the beds do not usually have their limits well defined, or at least their foot-walls, and the metallic zones sometimes leave their primary direction and wander off into the lower parts of the beds. 74 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii The timber required is sometimes gigantic, and many of the stnlls (or posts) have a diameter of more than three feet, and a length of 20 to 40 feet in places. In some of the mines the rocks, although hard and tough in mining, disintegrate very quickly on exposure to air and moisture, and temporary timbering is required to protect the men while they are placing the perma- nent timber and lagging. Such is the Phoenix Mine, which in some places does not require any blasting, for when water is thrown on the face of work, the rock slowly begins to crack and scale off. In such cases when stoping is begun in any place along a gallery, the work is pushed on as rapidly as possible without pausing (except during Sundays which are not observed in the Rocky Mountain mining regions), the slopes being filled in as the work ings ascend, leaving only mills, down which to throw the copper rock to the gallery below, whence it is conveyed to the shafts. But in many of the mines, or in portions of them, the galleries and shafts require little or no timber. Skips are now almost invariably used for hoisting, although a few kibbles may still be seen. Down the shafts inclined railways are constructed with T rails, which weigh from 12 to 18 pounds per yard, and having gauges varying in different mines from 4 to 4J feet wide. The skips are made of heavy boiler plate, each weighing from one and a half to two tons, and having a capacity for two tons of rock. Some skips empty from the bottom, but usually their loads are dumped from the top, and in order to be self-acting, the bick wheels are very bio id (8 inches), so th;.t when the conveyance arrives at the surface, (the rope being secured by a long iron handle, fastened at each side of the c ir near the horizon- tal axis of gravity) the fore wheels pass into a groove or break in the track, while, on the broad back wheels, the bottom of the car continues to ascend on the tramway, and thus upsetting, the skip dumps its contents into a car just beiow, ready to receive and convey them to the rock-house. The rock from the locality of work on each level in the mind is conveyed in other cars to the skips into which it is dumped. Wire ropes are almost entirely used, although hemp ropes are still to be seen. The sizes of the wire ropes employed are from one to one and a half inches in diameter, for the average lo id of four tons, the larger size being used in the deeper mines, some of which, down the inclines, are 1500-1800 feet deep. The foot walls are boarded and furnished with rol- lers, on whicn are carried the ropes, which, when properly No. 2.] SPENCER — COPPER-MINING. 75 cared for, can safely be expected to last 18 months. In one shaft that I know, the ropes had been used as long as possible, and broke twice each of them after a use of 29 months. At Portage Lake, from the Quincy Rock-House to the Stamp Mill, there is a descent of nearly 500 feet in a distance of halt a mile, the steepest grade having an inclination of 14° ; two full cars having a weight of 8 tons are run down an inclined tramway by gravity, and bring up two empty cars of half that weight, these trains of cars being connected by wire ropes over a drum at the summit of the hill. The rope, which is one inch in diameter, has been subject to constant use for 12 years, and although it has broken once (from accident) it is not yet worn out. The ropes which are not galvanized are always kept well tarred to prevent them from rusting. The transportation between the shaft, rock-houses, and stamp mills is also by various other contri- vances than the oue just mentioned. Sometimes when the railroads are not too long and nearly horizontal, the cars are attached to stationary engines by endless ropes, or again they are sometimes drawn by locomotives, by horses, or, where the distance is short, manpower is used. The car attached to endless ropes is so arranged that it dumps its contents, — this being accom_ plished by means of two small wheels near the back part of the box of the car, which project, so that when it passes a station near its destination, it runs up an inclined plane lifting the back end and causing the frout to open. The transportation of men in the mines is a subject of interest. Ladders are usually placed in each shaft. A stair, way is used in the incline shaft of the Phoenix Mine, while in another shaft of low inclination at the Central Mine, the miuers are transported by a car capable of carrying 25 men. At this mine, some years ago, 13 men were aiding up in a skip, when the rope broke, and the accident resulted in the death of 10 meu, the other three escaping, as the skip was thrown from the track and jammed, instead of going all the way to the bottom of the shaft. The officers are very strict in order to prevent the men from risking their lives by riding in the skips. In some of the deeper mines, as the Quincy, Pewabic, Cliff, Calumet and Hecla, man- engines have been constructed at very great cost. The longest of these is in the Quincy Mine,* built down an incline shaft of 54° to 56° dip, to a depth of about 1-450 feet. This contrivance con- * See isometric view of man-engine. 76 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol.'viii. sists of a pair of rods made of Norway Pine eight or nine inches square, the pieces of timber being 20 feet or more in length, and joined together by strong iron plates till the rods are 650 to 700 feet long ; below this depth to that of 1450 feet there is another similar pair. At distances of ten feet apart platforms are placed, so that when they come opposite to each other, and there is a temporary pause, the men on those of the one rod step across to the platforms on the other, constantly ascending or descending as desired ; the platform being only large enough for two men to pass. At the surface each rod is connected to adjacent ends of two gigantic bobs or walking beams, each of 30 feet in length. These two bobs are connected together by a strong wooden shaft, and are attached to the steam-engine gearing and worked so that the ends (two or three feet apart) have a reciprocating movement of ten feet ; consequently any force tending to pull one- bob down (as the rod loaded with men) will tend to lift the other (or the unloaded rodi. Now the two rods are thus balanced, and in order to lift men from the mines, only the amount of steam to overcome their weight and the friction of the machine is required. This is the principle, but in practice the rods which come to weigh many tons, must be further balanced, and also the friction existing between them and the inclined foot wall must be relieved. About every twenty feet apart there is a pair of flanged wheels attached to the rods and moving on rails, while at every 50 or 100 feet there are permanently attached grooved wheels, over which pass wire ropes or chains attached to both rods, and thus the dead weight of each section is locally balanced, and the upper part of the rods and the bobs are not sub- jected to an almost breaking strain. Again, by means of the break in the continuity of the rods above noticed additional equilibrium is given to the whole contrivance ; for here the rods of the lower half of the man-engine are attached to another set of bobs at the opposite ends to those to which the upper set is attached ; and thus when the rods are completely loaded the men on the upper 700 feet going in one direction tend to balance those on the lower 700, going in the same direction, and only the friction of the parts has to be overcome by the steam, besides the great weight of each rod being broken into two parts. The man-engine makes four strokes per minute, there being a pause at the end of each. The whole construction is very costly, but it is the best means of transporting the men to and No. 2.] SPENCER — COPPER-MINING. 77 from the workings ; for although cars may run up very quickly even from a great depth, yet but few can ascend each time, while with the man-engine a constant line of men is ascending, and a mine can thus be cleared of 200 to 500 men more quickly than by other means. Moreover if the machine breaks it cannot fall more than 10 feet, or perhaps not at all. Almost all the steam engines in the Lake Superior Copper region are high-pressure and are attached, either directly to the winding drum, or else have friction gearing. Most of the copper mines are comparatively free from water, and what does find its way into them is chiefly from the surface, or from the upper levels. Consequently the pumps — which are plungers — are relatively small, and the expense of working is inconsiderable. The plungers are usually placed at every 200 to 300 feet apart, with cisterns, and so the great pressure of the columns of water is avoided, and the cost of construction of stronger pipes much reduced. In some of the mines the lower levels do not of themselves contain enough water for mining purposes. As noticed before, the mines are cool, and out of the leading draughts of air, have an average winter and summer tempera- ture of 60° Fahr. Artificial ventilation is seldom resorted to, unless it be to change the current of air in a shaft from down- cast to up-cast. Most of the mines have adits or shafts of unequal height, and sufficient air naturally circulates, as long as the connections are good. In winter, doors require to be placed in some of. the passages, the currents of air becoming too rapid, as the difference of temperature at the surface and in the mine is very great, the thermometer at the surface some- times indicating from 30° to 47° below zero. When the rock brought to the surface is taken to the rock- house, it is hand-picked, and the poorer portions rejected. After the larger masses are broken up by steam-hammers, the whole of the cupriferous rock is put through Blake's rock-breakers and crushed to a small size, after which it is sent to the stamp mills. The larger pieces of copper that can be detached from the rock by hammers are cleaned and shipped as barrel-work, but they usually contains as much as ten per cent, of gangue. Under the stamp the rock is crushed in presence of water, and washed through sieves having holes a quarter of an inch in diameter. The fine material is washed down into hydraulic separators called jiggers (Collom's 78 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. or Sherman's Patent). The principle of these jiggers is that there is a piston box divided into two compartments connected with others in which there are sieves, and over these the water laden with powdered rock flows. A downward sharp motion is com- municated to the pistons which forces the water to rise up slightly through the sieve-boxes, on which the heavier and coarser material has settled, thus loosening it. By this means the finer particles of the heavier rock and copper pass through the sieves into the compartments below, whence they are washed down and are farther separated on other sets of jiggers. But the larger portion of the finer rock is carried off the sieves with the over -flow of water. By continuing this operation a mineral of rO to 88 per cent, of copper is obtained in small grains. The refuse from the jiggers is worked over on percussion-tables and in tossers, or else on convex or concave (English) baddies, by means of which au additional quantity of fine copper is saved. At best 20 to 40 per al bones. They were discovered two feet from the surface in a swamp. Near here, about a quarter of a mile west of the Village of Clear Creek, the clay (3) escapes from under the sand and constitutes the soil in the south part of Walsing- ham Township. The line subdividing the clay from the sand crosses the Town-line between Walsingham and Houghton Townships about two and a quarter miles due north of Lake Erie, or a little north of the Second Concession line in Walsing- ham Township. The sand occupies a breadth of about two miles along the second Concession line and advances in a tongue or spit ending N. 70Q W., diminishing to a quarter of a mile in width at Concession B. and thinning out near Port Boyal, on the west side of Big Creek. The sand is met with again on this line about five-eighths of a mile west of the Walsingham plank- road, and here has a breadth of a mile. Between these two places and beyond the mile eastward just mentioned, it recedes to the third Concession and disappears on the "Three-quarter Town Line"' in their localities one a mile north of the other, the latter being near the second Concession. The line crosses the Charlotteville "Townline West" at the second Concession of the latter township, and ending eastward, appears on the lake, on a hillside on the south-west bank of Barnum's Creek, near Turkey Point, Long Point Bay. On the" fourteenth Concession of Walsingham Township, a mile east of the Plank Road, is a work- able bed of stratified gravel, and near the fifth Concession on the Plank Road is a lenticular bed of poor limonite twenty feet in thickness. It has been worked over an area of fifteen acres and is employed for the manufacture of pigments. It may also be mentioned that there are two dunes or hills of blown sand, con- taining so much magnetite as to perturb the compasses of pass- ing vessels if they approach too near the shore. They are three hundred feet high, and occur half a mile south of the "Lake Shore Road " in Houghton Towuship, about six miles east of 84 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. Port Burwell, and fourteen miles west of Port Rowan ; they are immediately uyon the lake shore. The Township of Charlotte- ville is occupied almost altogether by sand, as is also Woodhouse. In Charlotteville, near Norinandale, are several thousand acres of blown sand, the only vegetation upon which consists of a few stunted grasses, the i'hlox subulata, Viola cucullata and Polypo- dium vulgare, and some scrub oaks and dwarf pines. These " oak plains" as they are called, are perfectly valueless for agricul- tural purposes. On page 185 of the Geology of Canada, 1863, will be found a notice of the bog iron ore beds of this township. Proceeding to North Norfolk and South Oxford it is found that the sand is here at the surface. It is unstratified and in Windham, Burford, Townsend and Oakland Townships it also seems to be unstratified and to have been derived entirely from the subcerial denudation of the Oriskany sandstone and Corniferous limestone. In Middleton Township, Norfolk County, the sand is met with also and in some localities in the former township sratified gravel. A somewhat peculiar feature — the dead forest — is met with in Dereham, Middleton, Bayham and Malahide Townships. In the summer of 1845 the pine trees in this re- gion all died. Near Waterford in Townsend Township stratified gravel is met with, while further north, both south and north of Brantford the Erie clay is seen to re-appear. It is not only seen in a brickyard south of the town, but also north along the cut- ting of the Harrisburg and Brantford Railroad which was com- pleted in 1871. At both localities the layers are contorted and corrugated. In Walpole Township, especially at Jarvis, the brown clay occurs at the surface. Proceeding eastward from Paris the sand overlies the blue clay and forms the "plains" of Brantford Township. From near Rosebank along the Governor's Road east nearly to Lynden, the brown clay appears, and in the valley of Fairchild's Creek is seento be stratified, and to overlie the stratified blue clay. Near Troy in Beverly Township the calcareous blue clay is met with, stratified and overlaid by the stratified brown clay and sands. Thus this brown clay is apparently the stratigraphical equivalent of the stratified brown clay at Port Rowan. On the second con cession of Ancaster Township the clay contains calcareous con- cretions and is here, about lot No. 7, overlaid by the sand. The sand is met with to lot No. 23, when the clay re-appears for a short distance. Approaching the edge of the Niagara escarp- No. 2.] WILKINS — SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS. 85 merit the gravel ridge is met with which is the watershed divid- ing streams flowing into Lake Ontario on the north from those flowing southwest to the Grand River. This watershed rises in Binbrook Township, Wentworth County, not far from the Grand River and trends N. W. to Copetown, Ancaster Town ship, through. Binbrook, Glanford and Ancaster Townships. It then sweeps round the head of the valley and trends north-east. It contains great numbers of boulders of Hudson River or Cincinnati age of the lithological character given on page 212 of the Geology of Canada, 1863 ; at the same time it holds few, if any. Medina Clinton or Niagara remains, and is stratified. The valley at Hamilton, Ont., is occupied by Medina red shales and sandstones. The iron in upper layers has been deoxydised by organic matter prior to the deposition of the stratified sand thereon, and the blue calcareous clay is evidently wanting. This is seen abundantly at different localities along the edge of the marsh near the Toronto branch of the Great Western Railroad, immediately east of the eastern city limits on the main line of the G. W. R. R., and towards Dundas west of the city. The Medina shale, is otherwise unchanged in appearance, showing that the change is due to organic matter only. The beautiful valley now occupied by Burlington Bay is, as Mr. J. W. Spencer, Bac. App. Sc. has shown, protected' by two sand- spits in which beach structure and wind drift structure are plainly seen. These are rudely parallel, the western one being called Burlington Heights and reaching a hundred and fifty feet in height, marking of course an ancient lake-level. A still more ancient margin can be observed, and is very distinctly seen at Dundas. West of Dundas to Copetown, the valley is occupied with hummocks of sand and clay, the latter underlying the former. A ridge of gravel leaves Burlington Bay on the north shore and trends north-eastward crossing the Toronto branch, of the G. W. R. R. half-a mile east of Waterdown Station. Near the G. W. R. R. bridge on the west bank of the Twelve mile Creek, near Bronte Station may be seen a bed of gravel occupying a hollow in the Medina sandstone. The valley of Burlington Bay at Hamilton was formed as •hown by Mr. Spencer by the erosion of several streams, though the primary form of the valley is doubtless due to the fact that the strata of the Niagara group fold over an anticlinal, and that hence the valley would occupy the crown of the arch, cceteris 86 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. paribus. The stream referred to drained an ancient lake, known to the "oldest inhabitant" as the Beverly Swamp. This oc- cupies a space of ten miles from south to north (Concession IV. to Concession XI.) and from the town-line west of Beverly through Beverly, West and East Flamboro' inclusive E. to W. " Crook's Creek " flowing- from this evidently contributed most to the formation of Burlington Heights. The swamp is crossed by several gravel ridges or eskers, with an E. and W. strike. They are stratified and average a hundred feet in height, con- taining large numbers of rounded boulders of the underlying Guelph limestones. Niagara debris is, as Mr. Spencer says, almost unknown among the boulders and pebbles of all the deposits in the south western part of the Western Peninsula of Ontario. North of Beverly in Puslinch and Guelph Townships, and as far west as Colborne and Goderich Townships, numerous other eskers are visible, some having a N. W. and S.E. strike, some N. and S. S (c .g. Smith's Hill, Colborne Township, and a parallel ridge a mile east,) and some E. and W. Between the eskers the country is often swampy. The eskers are all stratified. Except the striae in Beverly and Barton Townships there is no evidence of either glacial or iceberg action near Hamilton, Ont. Several new exposures have been made visible in the Guelph lime- stone of Beverly since the visit of the Geological Survey officers. One of these, half a mile north of Con. V. and north of Rockton, neai to one of the gravel ridges mentioned in the second paragraph above showed striae N. 70Q W. while at Rockton, two miles away, the striae were N. 79° W. on the ro.idside. At Sheffield three sets of striae occur, the most ancient being N. 75° W., then N. 75° E. and N. 40° E. Near Troy are two sets of striae N. 76° W. and N. 70° E. running North of Rockton a mile north of the first exposure are striae N. 70u E. No. 2.) WILKINS — GEOLOGY OF LABRADOR COAST. 87 NOTE ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. By D. F. H. Wilkins, B.A., Bac. App. Sc. During; the past summer a flying visit paid to a few localities on the Labrador Coast enabled the writer to assert that what has been alleged by Mr. Richardson of the Geological Survey, concerning the stratigraphy of the Laurentian rocks between the Bersimis and the Saguenay Rivers, is generally true concerning the rocks further north-eastward, at least at the few places visi- ted. The Lower Laurentian gneisses and diorites are invariably fractured and cleaved in all directions, and intersected by several fissures and some trap dykes, with a, generally speaking, north- easterly strike. The stratification lines are very often so obscure that it is almost impossible to say whether the rocks are meta- morphic or eruptive. On these are superposed unconformably the Upper Laurentian gneisses and norites with hyperites, and in one locality, a bed of micaceous sandstone, all dipping at mo- derate angles, lying in synclinals having, so far as examined, dips ranging from 26° 10' to 63° 26' and an E. and W. to N. 45° W. .trike. Thus atLittle Mecattina River outlet, Upper Laurentian, red- weathering, gray hyperyte in a bed two feet thick, overlaid by four feet of whitish gneiss with a dip N. 70° W.<49° and strike N. 20Q E., is seen to repose, at low tide, upon the under- lying red gneiss of Lower Laurentian age. At Baie de.s Mou- tons, eighteen miles north-east of this, Lower Laurentian firm, coarse-gra!ih d, r< d gneisses appear, intersected by cleavage-planes and fissures, and fine-grained, red, granitic veins, the older set having a strike N. 47° E. and intersected by the uewer set which strike N. 87° W. A fine example of a trap dyke can be seen from the ocean at Schooner Bay, three miles north-east of Baie des Moutous. Its strike is apparently N. 50° E, and its maxi- mum thickness is six feet, diminishing to three feet. At the mouth of the river St. Augustine, about fifteen miles from the mainland, on L'Isle aux Sables occurs the bed of micaceous sand- stone already referred to. It is tender and friable, brownish- grey in colour, and lies in a synclinal with a N. 45° W. strike.. Vol. VIII. e No. 2 88 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. The dip on the south side of the beds, where it is more friable than on the north, is to the N. E.<61°, while on the north side it is to the S. W.<58°. At L'Isle du Lac Sale about three miles nearer the shore, the Upper Laurentian rocks are seen to lie in a synclinal striking N. 10° W. and dipping N. 80° E.<63° 26' on the south-west side, and S. 80° W.<54° on the north-east side, about four miles across the strike. They rest upon black dio- rites and consist of twenty-nine feet of grey norites and thin red gneisses overlaid by gneisses which are mostly coucealed by vegetation. The bed of micaceous sandstone referred to is inter- calated between an unknown thickness of white gneiss below and about a thousand feet of reddish gneiss above. NEW AND INTERESTING INSECTS FROM THE CARBONIFEROUS OF CAPE BRETON. By Samuel H. Scudder, 07 Cambridge, Mass. Dr. J. W. Dawson has placed in my hands a piece of carbo- niferous shale from Cape Breton, containing remains of several insects. The best preserved and most interesting is the abdo- men of a larval Dr;igon-fly. Odonata, both mature and in their earlier stages, have previously been found in the Jurassic beds of Solenhofen ; wings and fragments of other parts have also been found in the English Lias, and a specimen, which may be an odouate larva, has been figured by Brodie from the Oxford Clay. No true Odonata, however, have been discovered so low as the carboniferous formation, unless the obscure fossil, thought by Goldenberg to be possibly a Termes,* may properly be referred to this group. In the last edition of Dr. Dawson's Acadian Geology, however, I have described (p. 387) the wing of an insect, Haplophlebium B'jrnesii, which certainly bears some striking resemblances to the Odonata, and of which it is not impossible that the present fossil may be the larva. * See Dunker and Meyer's Palasontographiea, iv, pi. vi, fig. 8. Sub- sequently (Vorw. Faun. Saarb. 12) Goldenberg refers this definitely to the Termitina, under the name Termes (Calotermes) Hageni. No. 2.] SCUDDER — INSECTS FROM CAPE BRETON. 89 The abdomen of the specimen (fig 1) is nearly perfect, and presents a ventral aspect, portions of the flanks of the body may Fig. l. Fig. 2. he seen on either side ; upon the left side in direct continuity with the ventral segments and very distinctly, especially since this region is darker colored than the other parts of the abdomen. The limitation between the ventral and pleural portions is sharply defined on this side by slight ridges, showing that in life these parts were abruptly limited, while the margination of the -extreme border of the fossil shows that, as in living odonate larvae, the dorsal was again separated from the pleural region of the abdomen by a distinct bend. The abdomen is elongate- ovate, devoid of any armature, composed of nine segments, the ninth obscure and bearing a pair at least of rounded lobate pads of considerable size, but not as in recent Odonata, pointed at the tip, The second to the fifth segments are shorter than the others ; the posterior edge of all the segments is straight, except- ing that of the seventh, that is gently convex, and that of the eighth, which is strongly and roundly excised ; that of the ninth appears also to be regularly concave. The entire entire length of the abdomen is 13.5mm, and the width of the fifth or broadest segment 6.5tum, counting only the ventral por- tion ; the appendages are lmm long. - It is impossible to say to which group of Odonata the fossil belongs. The Agrionina, are, however, unquestionably to be excluded. It seems to be most probably one of the Libellulina, and may be provisionally placed in the old genus Libellula (which formerly contained all the Odonata) and bear the name Libellula carbonaria. Accompanying this interesting fossil is a frond of Alethopteris and two fragments of wings of cockroaches One of the latter is too insignificant to be worth noticing, but the other is sufficient for determination, and may be called Blattina sepulta (fig. 2). 90 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. Vlii. It appears to be nearly allied to B. carbonaria Germ., but differs from it in some important particulars. It is very imperfect, a portion of the outer border being the only part of the m irgin which is preserved, but most of the disk of the wing is present ; probably the entire wing measured nearly 15mm in length ; the fragment that remains is but 6.2"tmm long and 5mm broad. The anal nervure is no more deeply impressed than the others, rather regularly curved, and itself emits several branching and simple shoots from its posterior border ; the anal field (and apparently also the middle field) is covered with very frequent cross-nervules, not represented in the figure ; the branches of the middle field appear to be not very closely crowded, distinctly less so than those of the costal field. The fossils were obtained at Oossett's Pit, near Sydney, Cape Breton, by Mr. A. J. Hill, C. E., from unear the horizon of the Millstone Grit," as I am informed by Principal Dawson. ON A COLLECTION OF PLANTS FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA, MADE BY MR. JAMES RICHARDSON IN THE SUMMER OF 1874. By G. Barnston. The collection of which the present paper is a catalogue can scarcely fail to be of interest to the botanist in Canada, as it is probably the first brought to Montreal from that distant portion of the Dominion. Forty-three of the species are from the vicinity of Victoria, the capital of Vancouver Island, and some of them give evidence of the, near approach to the genial climes of Washington and Oregon Territories, those picturesque regions whence many of the floral beauties which adorn the gardens of the wealthy both in England and in this our own land were originally obtained. McLaughlin's Bay (or Bella Bella) on Campbell Island, a Hud- son Bay Company post and Indian village, is the next locality, and has furnished forty-seven plants to the collection. The lati- tude of this place is about 52° 10' north, and the longitude is about 128° 10' west of Greenwich ; but the flora would seem to indicate that the temperature during the summer months is about the same as at Montreal. No. 2.] BARNSTON BRITISH COLUMBIA PLANTS. 91 The remaining locilities from which specimens were obtained are Gardner's Channel, Kamino River and Mountain, Kitimat Inlet and River. These rocky and deep inlets represent fully two degrees of latitude ; but, at least along the lower elevations skirting the shores, afford the same flora throughout. About forty species were collected on them, not including about fifteen repetitions of plants found at the first mentioned localities. To them may also be added eight or nine grasses gathered in the Kitimat country. Out of one hundred and twenty species about thirty pertain strictly to the Western flora, and are not known to occur east of the Rocky Mountains ; the rest, however, may be met with east of the mountains in various localities, some on the prairies or along their borders, and others in the wood d regions. Five or six species may be classed among the sub Arctic plants, viz., one Menziesia, two Andromedas, Saxifruga Aizoon and S. cest halt's. It may be remarked that the Andromeda cupres- sina (Hooker) which occurs among the Kamino plants and which is apparently confined to the mountains of the Pacific slope, is closely allied to, yet essentially different from, the Andromeda tetragona of Baffins Bay and the Arctic coast. The latter was the plant upon which Dr. Rae relied for fuel when he wintered in the Esquimaux country at Repulse Bay. The botanists of Montreal should feel greatly indebted to Mr. Richardson for this contribution to their knowledge of the Pacific coast flora, and for his still untiring assiduity in the pur- suit of scientific objects ; the more so as botany is not the particular branch of science in which he is officially engaged. LIST OF SPECIES. Near Victoria, Vancouver Island, May 1st to 10th. Ranunculus recurvatus, Bong. Hooked Crowfoot. R. occidentals ? Nutt. M. S. S. Delphinium Menziesii, De Candolle. Cardamine angulata, Hooker. Capsella bursa pastoris, Linn. Shepherd's Purse. Viola rotund/folia, Miehx. Round leaved Violet. " cucullata Ait., var. cordata. Cerastium arvense, Linn. Field Chickweed. Claytonia alsinoides, Sims. (= C. Unalaschkensis, Fischer.) Calandrinia JJenziesii, Hooker. 92 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. TUU Cytisus sarothamnus} Linn. The Broom. Naturalized. Trifolium microdon. Hooker & Arnott., (fide Macoun). Psoralea argophylla, Pursh. In its early state. Lathyrus venosus (Muhl.) var. D. (= L.pubescens, Nutt.) « decaphyllus, Hooker. Potentilla nivea, Linn., var. G. (= P. hirsuta, Vahl.) Ribes spectabilis, Pursh. Ribes sanguineus. Pursh. Saxifraga integrifolia, Hooker. " ranunculifolia, Hooker. Thaspium pmnatifidum, Gray. Seseli leiocarpum, Hooker. (Peucedanum, Nuttall.) Plectritis congesta, Hooker & Arnott, var. B. multiflorum. Bellis perennis. Linn. European Daisy. Introduced. Helianthus multiflorus, Linn. (Or II. decapetalus, Linn., var. multi- florus.) Achillea tomeniosa, Pursh. Armeria maritima, Willd. Dodecatheon integrifolium, Michx. Tnentalis latifolia. Hooker. Aphyllon uniflorum, Torrey & Gray. One-flowered Cancer-Root. Mimulus luteus. Pursh. (=r M. gultatus, DeCandolle.) Ilysanthes gratioloides, Bentham. (z=.Lindernia dilatata, Michx.) Veronica serpyllifolia, Linn. Thyme-leaved Speedwell. Castilleia hispida, Bentham. (M. S. S.) Ilyosotis Chorisiana. Hooker. " fulva, Hooker & Arnott. Rumex acetosella, Linn. Field or Sheep Sorrel Arelhusa bulbosa. Linn. Corallorhiza Mertensiana, Bong. Smilacina stellata, Desf. " bifolia, Ker. Erythronium grandiflorum, Pursh. var. B., albiflorum. Brodiea congesla, Smith. Fritillaria lanceolate, Pursh. Uvularia puberula. Michx. (= IT. lanuginosa, Pers.) From Campbell's Island (locally known as Bella Bella,) May 26th. Caltha natans, Pallas. Arabis hirsute, Scopoli. Drosera rotund/folia, Linn. Eound-leaved Sundew. u longifolia, Linn. Claytonia alsinoides, Sims. (= C. Unalaschkensis, Fischer.) Geum macrophyllum, Willd. Rub is odoratus. Linn. (Purple Flowering-Raspberry.) " obovatus ? Hooker : or pedatus ? Amelanchier Canadensis, var. bolryapium. (Shad-bush. Service-berry*) No. 2.] BARNSTON — BRITISH COLUMBIA PLANTS. 93 Ribes bracteosum, Douglas. Heuchera micrantha, Douglas. Cornus Canadensis, Linn. (Dwarf Cornel. Bunch-berry.) Sambucus pubens, Miehx. (Red-berried Elder.) Viburnum pauciflorum, De La Pylaie. Vaccinium uliginosumi Linn. (Bog Bilberry.) Arbutus Menziesii, Pursh. Gaulfheria procumbens, Linn. (Creeping Wintergreen.) Kalmia glauca, Ait. (Pale laurel.) Ledum palustre, Linn Pinguicula vulgaris, Linn. (Buttervvort ) Trientalis arclica, Fischer. " lalifolia, Hooker. Gentiana JJouglasiana, Bong. Spiranfhes cernua, Rich. Smilacina bifolia, Ker. Erythronium grandiflorum, Pursh : var. Eriophorum polystachion, Linn. Fog Rocks, May 28th. Gardner's Channel. June 1st. Claytoma alsinoides, Sims. (= C. Unalaschkensis, Fischer.) Carex Barrattii , Fischer. " 3rd. Thaspium atropurpureum ? (Or Sanicula Menziesii, doubtful.) Potentilla anserina. JLinn. (Silver-Weed.)' " 4th. Ranunculus cymbalaria, Pursh. (Sea side Crowfoot.) Actcea rubra, Bigelow. (Red baneberry.) Lonicera involucrata. (Herb. Banks.) " 5th. Aquilegia formosa, Fischer. Amelanchier Canadensis, var. botryapium. Aralia racemosa, Linn, (narrow leaved variety.) 11 7th. Smilacina racemosa, Desf. " 9th. Saxifraga aizoides, Linn. Yellow Mountain Saxifrage. " 10th. Campanula rotund (folia, Linn., (Harebell.) Gaultheria jjrocumbens, Linn. Kamino River. " 15th. Lupinus polyphyllus. Rosa fraxinifolia, Bork. Sax>fraga aestivalis, Fischer. (=z S. heterantha, Hooker.) Bulbiferous. Stachys ciliata, Douglas. Gentiana saponaria, Linn. (Soapwort Gentian.) " 16th. Andromeda cupressina, Hooker. " polifolia, Linn. Kamino Mountain. Kalmia glauca, Ait. 94 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. via. June 17th. Menziesia Grahami, Hooker. (Au ? var. M. empetriformis .) Stigma exserted. " 17th. Lathyrus marilimus, Bigelow. Gardner's Channel. " 18th. Lonicera involucrata. (Herb. Banks M. S. S.) Clio Bay. "21st. Corydalis glauca, Pursh. (Pale Corydalis.) Tellima grandiflora, Douglas. Dodecatheon interff ri/olium} Michx. Glaux maritime/, Linn. var. (Sea-Milkwort.) Erythronium grandiflorum, Pursh. Var. A : minor. Tofieldia glutinosa, Pursh, var. purpurea. (Like T. coccinea.) Kitimat. July 1st. Cornus stolonifera, Michx. (Red-osier Dogwood.) Inner Harbour. Andromeda cupressina, Hooker. Near snow. Kalmia glauca, Ait. Kamino Mountain. Pyrola secunda, Linn. (One-sided Pyrola.) Inner Harhour. Menyanthes Irifoliata, Linn. (Buckbean.) Polygonum viviparum^ Linn. (Alpine Bistort.) " 2nd. Tiarella trifoliata, Linn. Kitimat Village. Thaspium ? atropurpureum, Nuttall. (Or Sanicula Menziesii : doubtful.) Achillea tomentosa, Pursh. • " 15th Brassica campestris. Wild Turnip. Introduced. Claytonia perfoliata, Donn. Epilobium angustifolium, Linn. (Great Willow Herb.) " opacum} Lehm. Sanicula Menziesii, Hooker & Arnott. « bipinnatifida, Douglas. Heracleum lanatum, Michx. (Cow Parsnip.) Plectritis congesta, Hooker & Arnott. Var. B. Antennaria margaritacea, R. Brown. (Pearly Everlasting.) Hieracium. Undetermined. Eriogynia pectinata, Hooker. Spircea pectinata of Torrey. Pedicularis ornithorynchus ? Luzula campestris, var. ( = L congesta, Lej.) Agrostix scabra, Willd. (Hair Grass.) Calamogrostis Canadensis, Beauv. (Blue Joint-Grass.) Festuca microstachys, Nutt. Ilordeurn pratense, Huds. Aira dantkonoides, Trin. Hierochloa borealis, Rceni & Schultes. (Vanilla or Seneca Grass.) Phalaris arundinacea, Linn. (Reed Canary-Grass.) No. 2. J BULGER — THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 95 A VISIT TO PORT BLAIR AND MOUNT HARRIET, ANDAMAN ISLANDS. By Lieut.-Colonel George E. Bulger, F.L.S., F.R.lr.S., C.M.Z.S., Etc. Late H. M. 10th Foot. In the Bay of Bengal, between the 10th and 14th parallels of north latitude and the 92nd and 94th degrees of east longitude, lie the beautiful tropic islands of the Andamans, known to us since the Indian mutiny chiefly as a penal settlement, but latterly painfully associated in our minds with the mournful tragedy enacted there on the 8th February, 1872. The Andamans proper consist of four large islands and a mul- titude of smaller ones, mostly covered with luxuriant forest, and almost everywhere locked in a fringe of coral, which in many places forms extensive reefs, usually so steep and sudden as to be most dangerous of approach. The three largest, called res- pectively North, Middle, and South Andamans, are only separated from each other by narrow straits, which are not navigable at low water ; and hence they commonly bear the one general designa- tion of Great Andaman, in contradistinction to Little Andaman, the name given to the southernmost of the four, which is divided from the others by the broad, deep channel of Duncan Passage. The larger islands of the group are said to possess many good harbours and anchorages, as well as an abundance of fresh water,* but very little is known about them, as they are not often visited, chiefly, I imagine, in consequence of the danger of their coral reefs and the iuhospitality of their inhabitants, a woolly-headed, savage race, whose origin has been for some time, and is still, a puzzle to ethnologists. Nature has everywhere scattered her beauties over this region with a lavish hand, and some of the smaller rocks and islets are lovely as a fairy dream, counterparts of those bright creations of poetic fancy which Tennyson has drawn for us in ' Locksley Hall.' " Larger constellations burning, mellow moons and happy skies, Breadths of tropic shade and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise, Never comes the trader, never floats an European flag, Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland, swings the trailer from the crag : Droops the heavy-blossom'd bower, hangs the heavy-fruited tree- Summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea." * Kosser and Imray's " Sailing Directions." 96 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. Many years ago* the Honourable East-India Company formed a settlement at Port Cornwallis, a noble harbour of the north island, but it was soon afterwardsf abandoned on account of its extreme unhealthiness, and, since then, until the establishment of the present penal colony at Port Blair, where the interest of the group is now centred, the Andamans were left to the uure- strained dominion of wild and unfettered nature. The approach to Port BlairJ from the northward is very charming — the vessel threading her way through the blue waters of Diligence Strait, with a chain of picturesque islands upon one side, and the so-called mainland on the other ; — all more or less covered with a dense, rich forest, which is usually of the grandest description, and remarkable for the conspicuous, straight stems of its lofty trees. Every summit and every headland seems crowned with these vegetable giants — every valley and ravine is choked with an impenetrable network of thronging branches and irrepressible climbers, and even the very bays and creeks are brilliantly green with the vivid foliage of the mangrove. During the passage of this exquisite channel, fresh views of the magnificently forest-clad shores are incessantly revealing themselves to the delighted gaze of the traveller — each one wilder, brighter and more fascinating than the last, until their attractions culminate in the superb beauty of Port Blair itself, which is, perhaps, one of the loveliest bays in the whole world. It is a large, irregularly-shaped inlet at the south eastern end of the Great Andaman, indenting the coast to the westward, and then bending downwards to the south. Within its bounda- ries are most of the settlements of the colony, but the chief station is the little island of Ross, which lies athwart the entrance of the harbour, and, notwithstanding its small size, contains nearly all the principal public buildings, including the church, Government House, and the barracks. To the westward of Boss, at a distance of rather less than three miles, is another smaller island called Chatham, where a proportion of the convicts are quartered ; and, about the same distance further to the southward — still within the encircling arms of the beautiful sound — the chief prison of the station is reached. It stands upon Viper Island, and is most carefully guarded — a highly necessary precaution, for it contains the very * 1791. t 1796. t Formerly called Port Chatham. No. 2.] BULGER — THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 97 worst criminals from all parts of India. There are two thriving settlements on the mainland, nearly opposite to Ross, which are known respectively as Haddo and Aberdeen, and several other smaller villages are being established at suitable points further away. On the northern shore of the bay, is Hope Town, and, overlookiog this, the sanitarium of Mount Harriet. The scenery of the long and somewhat tortuous inlet is very attractive throughout its entire distance of seven miles, but its beauty is chiefly due to the presence of a rich and magnificent virgin forest, which, until lately, robed every portion of the visible earth in its vicinity with one living sheet of perennial verdure. Now, however, this glorious jungle has begun to fall rapidly before the axe and the clearing-fire, in consequence of its alleged unhealthiness. At the southern extremity of the bay is Homfray's Ghaut, and thence, a road, two miles in length, extends to Port Mouat, on the western coast. The land, immediately to the north of this road, is low, swampy and thickly covered with man- groves, but, to the southward, a steep, sloping hill-side flanks it throughout. Here are immense quantities of large and hand- some ferns, backed by a grand forest of gigantic trees, whose huge stems are profusely draped and adorned by parasitical and epiphytical vegetation of great luxuriance. Port Mouat consists literally of two bays, which are connected with one another by a narrow passage only ninety yards across. The outer one is open to the sea, and affords no shelter, but the other, which is circular in form, has room enough within its spacious lake-like expanse for the whole of the British fleet. The southern por- tion is very deep, but it shoals gradually towards the northern- shore, and, as the water is particularly clear, the coral bottom may easily be seen, as well as thousands of splendidly coloured fishes and gorgeous parterres of sea-anemones, whose vivid hues rival those of the iris itself. On a narrow spit of land project- ing from the northern shore and close to the little settlement, is a beautiful avenue of cocoa-nut palms, growing in two rows on either hand. These graceful trees, which were planted in 1866, bore fruit for the first time in 1872. Ross Island is a somewhat bold and rather picturesque triangu- lar mass of rock, consisting,according to Mr. Ball,* of bluish-grey * " Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal" xxxix. 232. 98 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. limestone, with interbedded layers of argillaceous shales, rising at its highest point to 195 feet above the sea, and covering an area of about one-third of a square mile ; its length being nearly 1,700 yards, and its greatest breadth — in the centre, where it runs out abruptly into a long projecting point — rather less than the same number of feet. Mr. Ball remarks that, owing to the great inclination of the strata, and other causes, there is con- siderable risk of destructive landslips ; and if some precaution- ary measures are not adopted, the eventual stability of the island itself may be endangered, by the removal of stones from the face of the cliff for building purposes, and the disintegration of the exposed surface by the sea and other natural influences. The indigenous vegetation of Ross has almost entirely given place to ornamental and useful plants, introduced from India, the Malayan Peninsula, and the larger islands. Amongst the trees are cocoa nut palms — which have probably been brought from the Cocos, as they do not appear to be anywhere natives of the Andamans proper — oranges and lemons, with other species of Citrus ; the Bullock's- heart (Anona reticulata), custard-apples (Anona squamosa), guavas (I'sidium pomiftriun etpyriferum), ac.icias of two or three kinds, including the fragraut A. farne- siana, Agati grand iflora, Cassia fistula ; the Mango (Maugifera indica), the Plantaiu (Mu&a paradisiaca,) and the Durian (Durio zibeihinus). There are also numbers of small and beau- tiful trees of Mesua ferrea, a noble and gigantic Calophyllum inophyllum near the Commissariat office, and, round the coast, occasional fine specimens of the common screw-pine (Pandanus verus). Besides these, many flowering plants and a number of so-called weeds, with ten or twelve specimens of grasses, have followed the footsteps of settlement and cultivation, all of which seem to thrive and flourish in the genial climate of this surf- lashed outlying sentinel of Port Blair. Peacocks of both species (Pavo cristatus et muticus), as well as the common Indian crow (Corvus spleadens), EstrcJda aman- diva, Acridotheres tristis et fuscus, and Palceornis torquatust have been introduced since the formation of the colony ; but the amaduvats have disappeared, and the prevailing form of Corvus now seems to be C. andamanensis, though C. culminatus is also found. Various genera and species of fishes — many of them brilliantly coloured — are abundantly represented in the blue waters of the No. 2.] BULGER — THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 99 bay* ; and rare and beautiful creatures constantly reward the researches of the malacologist, even on the shores of Rose itself; but my personal experience does not extend to either of the branches of natural sicence which include these denizens of the deep, and I must refer those desirous of information on both points to papers scattered over the Journals of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and Surgeon- Major Day's article on the Fishes of the Andaman Islands, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for 1870. • The sea was curling up into white-lipped wavelets one day in the beginning of November, 1871, when, accompanied by a brother officer, I crossed the bay en route to Mount Harriet, a hill overlooking the harbour, and easy of access from Hope Town, which is a little native village situated in a cove to the westward of Perseverance Point, and nearly opposite to the set- tlement of Chatham. As we left the jetty at Ross, the dark nimbus clouds which had obscured the morning began to break and give place to a fairer sky, and ere we had completed half our voyage, the truant sun peeped out upon us, and shed such a magic light around, that the superb land-locked inlet, with its * The following note may perhaps be interesting as evidence of the rapacity and numbers of sharks in these waters. It is condensed from an account written by a brother officer, whose veracity and accuracy are both unimpeachable. " The Andaman fishing expedition which you enquire about took place, as you know, during our short sojourn in Port Blair in October, 1871 ; and my companions were five convicts — all natives of India. I had great difficulty in pursuading the official in charge of these men to allow me to accompany them, and it was onlv on my promis- ing not to ask them to return before the proper time that he acceded to my request. We left Koss about eleven^o'clock in the forenoon, and w».nt, in the first instance, to a small settlement upon the main island some few miles to the north-west, where we remained about three-quarters of an hour. It was a pretty little spot, but as the boatmen went ashore and left me to take care of the canoe, I was unable to explore it ; and, indeed, the surf was so great that I do not think I could have landed with any degree of comtort. Thence we pro- ceeded to the fishing-ground, about twenty miles further north, which we reached about 4 p.m. In this vicinity, we remained the whole night and part of the next morning — changing our position occa- sionally when we found the sport getting slack. The weather during the day was fine and pleasant, but about sunset the wind rose, and the night subsequently proved rather rough and stormy — much to my 100 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. picturesque islands and wooden shores, seemed all aglow with gold and amber, while the white breakers dashing over the coral reefs, and gathering force and grandeur at every fresh breath of the sea-breeze, lent such an additional charm to the rich green forest, still dripping and sparkling with pendent rain-drops, that the scenery attained an almost ideal beauty, impossible to describe — so soft — so fresh — so glorious. " That earth now Seem'd like to heaven, a seat where Gods might dwell Or wander with delight." The distance across the bay is rather more than three miles, and it was about eleven o'clock when we landed at Hope Town, on the still unfinished pier, which scarce three months later earned such a melancholy celebrity by the assassination of Lord Mayo. After a short delay at the village, until the servants arrived with our supplies of food and other impediments, we commenced the ascent by a very good bridle-road of thirteen furlongs in length, which climbs easily and pleasantly through a beautiful virgin forest to the Commissioner's bungalow upon the summit of discomfort, for the heaving and tossing motion made me ill, and, as there was no room for me to stretch my legs, I suffered terribly from the cramped position which I was obliged to maintain for nearly thirty hours. We did not get back until 3 p.m. the next day, and the canoe was so small and crank, that I was confident we should not have accompished the voyage in safety, if the boatmen had not been plucky fellows and thoroughly up to their work. I believe all the other fishing parties returned to the shelter of the harbour before it grew dark. We shipped so much water that one of the men was constantly employed in bailing, and even then, we narrowly escaped beine swamped. We used ordinary deep-sea lines, and the bait con- sisted of bits of fi>h. Those which we caught were from ] 8 to 24 inches in length, and weighed perhaps between 8 and 14 pounds. I believe they are called cocoa-nut fish, but I regret to say, I knew nothing further about them. Our take would have been very great, had it not been for the sharks, which, in many instances, robbed us of our captives by taking them off the hooks, while they were being hauled in, and leaving nothing but the heads. This was done so deftly and expeditiously too, that the monster's snap was sometimes hardly perceptible. I was so faint when I got back, owing to sickness, the miseries of my awkward position and want of food — plantains and papaws being the only provisions we had with us — that I could scarcely stand." No. 2.] BULGER — THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 101 the hill, 1,185 feet above the level of high tide. Nothing can be more charming than this pathway, winding, as it does, amidst the profuse and irrepressible vegetation of the tropics, and vocal with the many strange and singular sounds with which creation speaks in these voluptuous latitudes. Noble trees of great height and remarkable for their huge buttressed trunks, staud all around like mighty sentinels, and cast grateful shadows from their green canopies of foliage over much of the ascent, tempering the heat and affording shelter to hundreds of gay and often sweet- voiced birds and marvellous insects, which make their home amidst these vast storehouses of nature ; while clinging to the giant stems and round the great spreading arms of the patri- archal trees, are myriads of parasitic il and climbing plants, rejoicing and luxuriating in the moist warm climate, which though almost free from the oppressive sultriness of the calm regions, possesses much of that fervent life-giving humidity so characteris- tic of the equatorial zone. It is not the lea-t of the attraction of this delightful roadway, that in its immediate vicinity a beautiful brook comes dashing down the mountain-side from a perennial spring near the summit, and after a sparkliug and rapid journey, falls into the bay near Hope Town. Escaping a drenching shower on the way by the opportune occurrence of a sheltering rock, we reached the summit of the hill in due course of time, and, taking possession of the Commis- sioner's house, regaled ourselves with cool draughts of m ignifi- cent milk, which appeared to be the only purchasable article within reach, notwithstanding th it a considerable portion of the extensive clearing round the bungalow was devoted to the culti- vation of vegetables of different kinds. Other houses, inferior in size and aspect to that which we had- temporarily appropri i- ted, combined to form a sort of village in this charming locality, which seemed to rejoice in a most cool and pleasant climate, and afforded us such a view as is rarely seen even in the tropics. The panorama unfolded by our elevation embraced a vast exteat of sea and land, including Rutland Island and Macpherson's Straits, as well as some of the lofty elevations of the North Andaman, including the Saddle Mount tin, which is visible at sea sixty miies away, and estimated to 2.400 feet in height. Almost below us lay the beautiful harbour of Port Blair, with its various rocky islands, and stretching away to the southward, the forest-fringed lagoons leading to Port Mouat. 102 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viil. Mr. B:ill, whose interesting paper on the geology of the vicinity of Port Blair* I have already quoted, states that the principal rock of Mount Harriet is a coarse yellowish-green or grey sand- stone, apparently very absorbent of water ; also that close to the top of the hill the sandstone appears in vertical beds, but that on the ascent the rocks are much obscured by humus. During the alternations from gloom to sunshine which the moving clouds so frequently created, the effects of light and shade upon the extended landscape open to our view were exceedingly beautiful, and sometimes so wonderfully rapid and complete as to be almost startling. In a single instant it seemed as if the forest changed from a brilliant combination of vivid greens to a solemn and uniform, heavy-looking, almost blue tint, while per- haps, after the lapse of a few seconds, it would suddenly reveal itself again in all its former sunny brightness. The luminous play upon the water under these conditions, though perhaps not quite so striking, was even more lovely still, — now presenting to our gaze a sapphire sea, and anon passing quickly to chryso- prase and emerald, to flash back upon us next moment with an intensity of blue rivalling the deepest azure of a southern sky. There were scarcely any flowers in bloom, excepting orchids, which seemed to be chiefly representatives of various species of Dendrobium, but they were all out of reach, and I did not pro- cure a single specimen. Many of the trees were unknown to me, but in the forests I recognized a few that I was familiar with ;. amongst which were Dipterocarpus Icevis, Mesua ferrea, and Pterocarpns dalbergi aides. There was also a tree with brilliant and red decaying leaves, so like Terminalia catappa, that I have no doubt of its having been T. procera, as mentioned by Mr. Kurz;* an Acacia in tolerable abundance, and a Lagerstrcemia ; also in the lower and denser forest extending down to the beach, Sterculia fcetida and a gigantic Dillenia, which was probably D. pilosa of Roxburgh. I met with no tree-ferns of any kind, and scarcely any pilms, excepting a prickly climbing Calamus, which was very common, while the great pendulous lichens, such as I have s e » adorning the damp forests of the eastern Himalaya in profuse quantities, were altogether absent. Pathos scandens, however, another characteristic plant of the moist Himalayan wood-, was everywhere plentiful and luxuriant. Mangroves * J. A. S. B., xxxix. p. 231. No. 2.] BULGER — THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 103 abound in some places, fringing the shore with their brilliant green foliage and growing upon them. One of my friends found large quantities of Orchidaceoe, chiefly species of Dendrobium and Pholidota. Of birds, we obtained specimens of a beautiful parrakeet (Palceomis nicobaricus) which seemed very abundant, but gene- rally kept well out of reach of shot in the upper branches of the great trees ; of the peculiar-looking black woodpecker (Muelleri- picus Hodgii), and some of the Indian green imperial pigeons (Garpopliaga sylvatica). We saw also a good many bulbuls (Otocompsa jocosa) and sunbirds (Nectarinia pectoralis) ; a Pericrocotus, which was most probably P. peregrinus ; aud a few others which I failed to ideutify. A small collection, however, made by a brother officer on Mount Harriet, and in the forests stretching downwards to the sea-beach, furnished me with the following species : Palceomis erythrogenys, Blyth ; Centropus andamanensis, Tytler; Macropygia rufipennis, Blyth.; Chalcophaps indicus, Linn.; Osmotreron chloroptera, Blyth ; Pericrocotus peregrinus, Linn. — Pericrocotus Jlammeus, Forster ; Loriculus vernalis, Sparm. ; Irena puella, Lath. ; Oriolus andamanensis, Tytler ; Merops quinticolor, Viell ; Myiagra Tytleri, Beavan ; Alcedo asiatica, Swains; Todiramphus collaris,Scoip. : Picus andaman- ensis, Blyth ; Edolius malabaricus, Scop. After a most delighful sojourn of some hours on the summit of the hill, the lengthening shadows warned us to retrace our steps. But before we reached Boss Island the soft obscurity of evening was fast settling down over land and sea. " Now nearly fled was sunset's light, Leaving but so much of its beam As gave to objects, late so bright The colouring of a shadowy dream ; And there was still when day had set^ A flush that spoke him loth to die — A last look of his glory yet, Binding together earth and sky." Vol. VIII r , No. 2. 104 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. ON THE MOLLUSCA OF THE POST-PLIOCENE FORMATION IN ACADIA. By G. F. Matthew. [From the Annals of the Belgian Society of Malacology (SociSte- Malacologique de Belgiciue, Tome IX, 1874.)] As an introduction to the immediate subject of this paper it may not be out place to give a brief outline of the chief charac- teristics of the Post-Pliocene Formation in the Northeastern part of North America. Two writers, eminent both in America and Europe, have given much time to the study of this formation. Dr. J. W. Dawson in his writings on this subject, published in this Journal, and in a synopsis entitled " Notes on the Post-Pliocene of Canada," Mon- treal, 1872, gave a fnll account of the beds and of the organic remains which they contain, in the Province of Quebec. Dr. A. S. Packard of Salem, Massachusetts, has also devoted much time to the study of Surface Geology, chiefly that of Labrador, and of the State of Maine ; and has published the result, of his observations in the Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. I. part II. While these authors have discussed the phenomena of the Post- Pliocene in the region to the west and north of Acadia, but little attention has been given to this country itself. My object in this puper is to supply this deficiency in part, by mentioning a few facts bearing on the distribution of the Mollusca which the Acadian beds contain ; both in relation to the depth of the sea in which they flourished, and their geographical range now, as compared with their distribution in Post-Pliocene times. The history of this period in North-eastern North America opens with the movement of enormous masses of ice over the face of the country from north to south. At every point where the solid rocks are laid bare, deep and regular striae or scorings attest the universality and great power of this attritive force. Dr. Dawson holds to the theory that these gr oves, and the " Boulder Ciay " which lies at the base of the surface depo- sits, are due to the action of water-borne ice, carried southward by a strong polar current ; while Dr. Packard boldly advocates the view that the phenomena are due to the movement of a No. 2.] MATTHEW — POST-PLIOCENE MOLLUSCA. 105 •continental glacier of vast thickness and weight, which descended southward across Canada and New England. So far as my own observations go, it seems to me quite impossible to explain all the phenomena of the Drift or Post-Pliocene period in Acadia upon either of these two theories taken alone : both glacier and ice- berg have had free scope and course here, but to describe fully the results of their presence would swell these preliminary remarks to undue proportions. Suffice it to say that the period opened with the operation of that powerful agent — ice — which gave rise to the drift striae, and the boulder-clay ; and that the marine life of the epoch was extremely scanty.* The Boulder-clay is universally distributed in Acadia, being found near the tops of the highest hills and throughout the whole extent of the country. It is a deposit which so far as we know is without stratification, and consists of an intimate mix- ture of sand and clay, in which innumerable striated blocks and fragments of stone are imbedded : these stones have been trans- ported southward, and the majority, in the southern part of New Brunswick, m;iy be traced to ledges of old rock not more than ten or fifteen miles north of the places where they are now found. Throughout a great part of the country the Boulder-clay is overlaid by another deposit which has been denominated " modi- fied drift" from the fact that the materials of which it is made up are derived from the Boulder-clay and have beeu sorted and rearranged by water. It is well developed in the valley of the St. Lawrence River, where Dr. Dawson divides it into the Leda clay and Saxicava sand. A threefold division of the formation would be more appropriate in xicadia, for in this country the Leda clay is separated from the Boulder-clay by stratified sand .and gravel beds, enclosing smoothed boulders : in its lower part this arenaceous group has irregular beds of Boulder-clay alterna- ting with the sandy strata ; but the mass of it is distinguished from the typical Boulder-clay, by the absence of clay, the round- ness and smoothness of the stones, and the well marked stratifi. cation. No trace of organic remains has yet been found in this group, and the arrangement of the beds in many places is such as to indicate that they were deposited in waters of considerable * Dr. Dawson affirms the presence of I'ortlandia glacialis in true " Till" or Boulder Clay on Murray Bay River in the Valley of the St. Lawrence. 106 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. Vlii. depth traversed by a powerful ocean current. It would appear, therefore, that when these beds were deposited the Acadian region was submerged, and that a resistless current from the icy regions of the Pole flowed over it, sweeping the finer parts of the Boulder-clay from the exposed hills and ridges to more profound depths in the ocean, and heaping up the coarser materials into "horsebacks" (escars) "moraine ridges" and mounds, depending for their direction and form upon the position of submerged elevations along the sea-bottom. Similar condi- tions now prevail in certain parts of the North Atlantic Ocean, where there are wide tracts of the ocean floor covered with sand, having scattered stones and boulders, and which in like manner are swept by strong currents flowing from the Polar regions. I would suggest for these Acadian beds the name Syrtensianr as indicating their composition and the conditions under which they were formed. Dr. Packard has used the same term in a different sense ; viz : as a name for the fauna of a sub-arctic- type which characterizes the fishing banks off the coast of New England. Beds of the kind I have described above would appear to- underlie the Leda clay in the broad plain of the St. Lawrence ; for in Dr. Dawson's section of the modified drift at the Glen brick-works near Montreal, he gives a thickness of twenty feet of such beds beneath the Leda clay at that place. A similar sub-stratum to the Leda clay is to be found along the Atlantic coast of the United States as far south as Massachusetts Bay, as appears from the figured sections and text of Dr. Packard's memoir ; and it is clear from the writings of Prof. C. H. Hitchcock and others, that this part of the Post-Pliocene is similarly constituted as far south as Long Island Sound. The Syr ten si an beds of Acadia graduate upward into Leda clay when the latter is present. This group consists of finely laminated clay beds with thin partings of sand, near the coast ; but among the hills of the interior it is chiefly made up of sand and clay in alternate layers, and in nearly equal propor- tions. In certain limited tracts away from the coast the group contains only sand beds. Among the hills of the interior, organic remains are but seldom met with in the Leda clay, but on the lower levels near the coast a variety of fossils have been exposed by the wearing of the clay banks along the shores of the Bay of Fundy, and in cuttings along lines of railway. Among these No. 2.] MATTHEW — POST-PLIOCENE MOLLUSCA. 107 may be mentioned bones of a seal and a whale, teeth of a large mammal, various crustaceans, echinoids, worms, corals and sea weeds, besides the molluscs which it is my purpose now to describe. In the following list I have noted the bathymetric and geogra- phical range of most of the species named, and added further remarks upon any peculiarities which seemed worthy of mention. The zones of depth referred to in this catalogue are Littoral — the space between high and low water marks ; Laminar ian — from low water to a depth of fifteen fathoms ; Coralline — the depth from fifteen to fifty fathoms. For the vertical range of species given in this paper I am in most cases indebted to Dr. Stimpson's catalogue, "Shells of New England." The B.iy Chaleur shells were collected by Mr. Robt. Chalmers. The localities indie ited by letters are — R. C, River Charlo, B. P., Black Point, R. B., River Benjamin, T. R., Tatagouche River— all on Bay Chaleur ; St. A., St. Andrews and Oak Bay, St. Gr., St. George, St. J., St. John, in the Bay of Fundy. Neptunea tornata, Gould. — Recent, Arctic seas to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. — Fossil R. C, R. B., St. A. Not common either in the Bay Chaleur or Bay of Fundy deposits. Another speiies •of this genus N. decemcostuta, which though now living on the coast has a more southerly range than N. tornata, has not been found in the Leda clay further north than Brunswick, Maine. Sipho Kroyeri, Moller. — Recent, Arctic seas to Gulf of St. Lawrence. — Fossil, R. C, B. P., St. A. ? Rare in these places. Buccinum undatum, Linn. — Recent, Greenland to Massachu- setts Bay. — Laminarian to Coralline. — Fossil, R.C., R. B., St. J., St. A. In the deposits on the B iy of Fundy this species is much more common than the succeeding buccina ; but on Bay Chaleur .shells of the other species are equally numerous. B. tenue, Gray. — Recent, Arctic seas to the Gulf of St. Law- rence.— Fossil, B. P., R. C, St. J. Much less abundant than B. undatum. B. glaciale, Linn. — Recent, Greenland to Gulf of St. Law- rence.— Fossil, B. P. Rather scarce. B. Groenlaridicum, Chemn ? — Recent, Greenland. — Fossil, T. R. I am not sure that this species is correctly referred, the specimen (sent to me by Rev. C. H. Paisley) is more ventricose than that figured by Dr. Dawson ; the upper part of the whorls is also less tumid. 108 THK CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol.viii. B. DotlOVani, Cray. — Recent, Newfoundland and northern seas. — Fossil, B. I'. Rare. A tingle shell with the characteristic ridge on the lower whorl. Lacuna neritoidea, Gould. — Recent, Nova Scotia to Long Island Sound. — Littoral to Laminarian. — Fossil St. J. Hare. I mention this species on the authority of Or. A. S. Packard. l/unatia herosi Say. — Recent, Labrador to Long [sland Sound, but i scarce to the South of Cape Cod — Littoral. — Fossil, 11. 0. Two small insymmetrica] individuals shewing the result of dwar- fing like a shell of* the same species collected at Quebec by Dr. Dawson. //. herotf Say? var. Chalfnefii. A specimen from Benjamin River received from Mr. Chalmers, [f of the species L, heros, it is a strongly marked variety. It is proportionately mnch higher than the typical form ; the whorls arc DJOre tumid, and the spire more elevated ; the lower part of the pillar lip, which in L. heros is thin below the umbilical opening, is in this specimen thickened and rounded ; the umbilical opening is .smaller than in Say's slull, and there is a strong ridge on the npper margin of the la t, wborl, next the suture. The length of the spire in speci- mens of Ij. heron collected in the Bay of Pundy, when com- pared with that o( the aperture is as 1 to *\\ or 5 ; but in some from Mingen River on the south coast of Labrador the proportion is 1 to 3j : and as the ratio in Mr. Chalmers shell is 1 to "l\ it is probably a high northern variety of this species. Length If inch, breadth \\ inch. Natica ajjiitisf Qmelin (clausa I>. & Sow.)— Recent, Green- land to Massachusetts Bay. — Corralline zone. — Fossil, 11. C, K. B., T. II., St. .]., St. A. Common in Hay of Pnndy deposits, but more plentiful in those of Bay Chaleur. Bela turricula, Montagu. — Recent, Gulf of St. Lawrence to Massachusetts Hay.— Coralline. — Fossil, R. C, B. P. Rather Hmall and not common. Bela harpularia, Oouthouy. — Recent, range as in the last species.— Laminarian to Coralline. — Fossil, same localities as last. Infrequent. Pecten I$landicu$i Chemnitz. — Recent, Greenland to Long Island Sound. — Laminarian to Deep Sea Coiallinc.- — Fossil, St. John. Plentiful at one locality. Pecten tenuicostut, Mighels, (Magella'nicv$i Lam.) — Recent, Labrador to Massachusetts Bay. — Laminarian to Coralline. — Fossil, St. John. Rare. No. 2.] MATTHEW POST-PLIOCENE MO&LUSCA. 1 09 Pecten tenuicostatus var. ? A abell resembling this species in form and sculpture occurs at St. John. Tt II thicker than the ordinary form of the species and has fainter striae. Toldia HopotUl'i., Gould. — Recent, Labrador to Long Island Sound. — Coralline — Fossil, a single valve at Black Point. This is not the variety of Y. limatula Say, reported by Dr. Dawson from the clays of Riviere do Loup, for it agrees in all respects with Y. sapotilla, and has hinge teeth which are excavated on their outer side. Portlandla glacialis, ^xr-.iy {Leda truncata, Brown;. — Recent) Arctic seas.— Fossil, R. C, K. B., T. R St. J St. A. This is the most abundant shell in the great mass of the Leda clay along the shores of the Bay of Fundy, hut is infrequent in the deposits on the south side of Bay Chaleur. The abundance of this shell in the clays of the St. Lawrence Valley led Dr. D v-erj to denominate those beds '■'• Leda clay/' P. glacialis becomes dwarfed and scare- where the deposit called the Leda clay is sandy. Leda minuta, Fabricius. — Recent, Greenland t/» Nova. Scotia — Coralline— Fossil, B. P. and St. J. R^ro. Our specimens are shorter and more pouched than those collected at Riviere dn Loup by Dr. Dawson. The -hells; from Ray Chaleur are of the variety c o rap lanata. Leda pernula, Muiler. — Recent, Arctic seas to Long I -land Sound— Coralline.— Fossil, R. C.; B. P., T. R.; St. <>., St. A. — The varieties tenuUulcata and buccata are common at the localities on Bay Chaleur; but both there and on the Bay of Fundy the former is the more common shell ; while in speci mens from Riviere da Loup v > r. buccata prevails. NucvXa tenuis, Montagu. — Recent, Greenland to Casco Bay, Maine. — Coralline. — Fossil, common on Bay Chaleur at the ities named. Not yet found on the Ray of Fundy. tfuctlla expansa, Reeve. — Recent, Arctic seas to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Common at St. John with Portlandia glacial is t and occurs at St. George and St. Andrews. Only one valve from Bay Chaleur (Jaconet R.) Modiolaria discors, Linn,? — Recent, Labrador to Massachu- setts Bay. — Laminarian. — Fossil at Black Point, one valve; too imperfect to determine the species but resembles this one in form. 110 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. Mytilus edulis, Linn. — Recent,Greenland to Long Island Sound — Littoral. — Fossil, R. C, R. B., St. J., St. A. Common in upper beds of the Leda clay at St. John ; and is plentiful on Bay Chaleur where var. elegans is common. Cryptodon sp. ? — Fossil St. John. Rare. Specimens of a Cryptodon quite different from C. Gouldli, Phil., are to be found occasionally in the starfish beds of Duck Cove : it is near C.flexuosus of the British seas, but differs in being more tumid, especially toward the beaks, and these are more sharply curved at the points than those of the British species named. The fur- row extending from the beak toward the posterior margin of our shell is much narrower than in C.Jlexuosus ; and the ridge dividing it from the ligamental border is correspondingly nar- rowed and sharpened. There is a faint ridge descending from the beak to the base of the anterior border, and between it and the lunule, the concentric wrinkles of the epidermis are stronger. Shell thin and fragile. Epidermis pale yellowish blown. Kellia suborbicularis, Montagu. — Recent, N. Europe, (Nova Scotia and Massachusetts Bay, Gould.) Fossil at Black Point. Rare. A small shell, which agrees with the figure and descrip- tion of this species in Gould's Invertebrata of Massachusetts. Serripes Groenlandica, Chemnitz. — Recent, Greenland to Mas- sachusetts Bay.— Coralline.— Fossil R. C, R. B., T. R., St. J., St. A. Recent individuals from Mingen River, Labrador, are double the size of our largest shells from the Post- Pliocene. Shells from the clays of the Bay of Fundy are thin and fragile. Cardium pinnulatum, Conrad. — Recent, Gulf of St. Lawrence to Long Island Sound. — Laminarian. — Fossil, St. J., St. G. Rather plentiful in a few places. These shells, especially the larger ones, are more angulated than the recent individuals from Mass tchusett's Bay figured by Dr. Gould. Astarte arctica, Moller, var. lactea ? — Recent, Greenland to Casco Bay, Maine. — Fossil at St. Andrews where it is infre- quent. This is the largest of our Astartes ; it is wider than A. semisulcata, Gray, and possesses a beak which is nearer the anterior margin and more acute. Astarte compretsa , Linn. — Recent, Greenland to Labrador. — Fossil at St. Andrews. Infrequent. This is intermediate in form between the last and the following species ; it is a deeper, higher and thinner shell than A. lactea. No. 2.] MATTHEW — POST-PLIOCENE MOLLUSCA. HI Astarte Banksii, Leach. — Recent, Greenland to Nova Scotia. — Fossil at St. John. This species has more prominent beaks than the last, and the anterior border is arched inward more deeply at the lunule. Spisula solidissima, Chemnitz ? var. Acadica* Recent, Labrador to Long Island Sound. — Littoral to Laminarian. — This form is from the higher clay beds at St. John ; and in ponderosity, form of the cartilage pit, position of the beaks, and shortness of the lateral teeth, approaches the European S. solida. It may be an arctic variety of S. solidissima. Height If, length If. Macoma fnsca, Say, var. Groenlandica, — Recent, Greenland to the B;iy of Fundy. — Littoral, the variety Laminarian (to Coralline ?) Fossil, R. C, B. P., T. R., St. J., St. A. A small rough variety abounds at Lawlor's Lake near St. John, in a bed which appears to belong to the Saxicava sand, but a larger and smoother form is the most abundant at Bay Chaleur; the latter recalls M. solidula of Europe, but is distinct. M. Groenlandica still lives in the deeper waters of the Bay of Fundy, and in the sand-flats along its shores M.fusca abounds. Macoma calcaria , Chemnitz. — Recent, Greenland to the Bay of Fundy. — Coralline.— Fossil, same localities as the last species, but while that (on the Bay of Fundy at least) is confined to the Saxicava sand and upper part of the Leda clay, this one ranges through the whole of the latter deposit. Pandora (Kennerlia) glacialis, Leach. — Recent, Arctic seas to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.— Fossil at St. John. Frequent in the starfish beds at Duck Cove. It was first referred to P. trilin- eata, Say., from which Dr. Dawson says it is quite distinct. Lyonsia arenosa, Moller. — Recent, Greenland to Nova Scotia. — Fossil with the last species. Lyonsia Norvegica f — Recent, Arctic seas. — Fossil with the last two species, and more common than Pandora glacialis. From Lyonsia hyalina, Conrad., this shell differs in being more ven- tricose, somewhat higher, and in having no radiating furrows, though in some individuals there are obscure radiating lines. I have not seen P. Norvegica and therefore am not sure of the identity of our shell with it. * N.B. I find that this shell agrees very closely with specimens of S. truncata, Mont, received from England, and differs chiefly in the .shortness of the lateral teeth and in having a more oval outline. It may he an exotic. 112 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. Mya truncata, Linn., and variety Uddev alien sis. — Recent. Greenland to Massachusetts Bay. — Littoral to Coralline. — Fossil, R. C, B. P., St. J., St. A. Frequent. The long form occurs in the clays at St. John, but the variety is more preva- lent. Mya arenaria, Linn, and var. acuta. — Recent, Greenland to Long Island Sound.— Littoral.— Fossil, R.C., B.P., T. R., St.J., St. A. I have found this species only in the Saxicava sand. It is now one of the most abundant molluscs on our coast. The variety which is probably Say's Mya acuta, is distinguished by being markedly ovate in form : it is inflated and expanded in front, and the posterior slope from the hinge is much straighter than in the typical form. The variety is by far the most abundant shell in the Bay Chaleur clays, but the Myas of the St. John beds are of the ordinary form. It may therefore be conjectured that the var. acuta is of northern origin. Saxicava rugosa, Linn., and var. arctica. — Recent, Greenland to Long Island Sound. — Littoral to Coralline. — Fossil, R.C., B. P., T. R., St. J., St. A. This very variable species is more abundant in the deposits of the St. Lawrence Valley and Bay Chaleur, than in those of the Bay of Fundy. In going south from the St. Lawrence R. the more regular forms, such as &. rugosa and S. pholadis, increase in number, and the distorted varieties S. arctica, S. rhomboides and S. hiatella decrease. For instance in a collection made at Riviere du Loup, for which I am indebted to Dr. Dawson, I find all but two are distorted forms; in Mr. Chalmer's collection from Bay Chaleur the irregular ones still predominate, and two-thirds of the shells would fall into the varieties arctica, &c. ; but in the shells collected from the Bay of Fundy clays, this proportion of distorted to regular forms is reversed ; at St. Andrews one third only are of arctic types j and of those collected at St. John, only one-fifth. In the speci- mens of this species sent to me by Dr. Packard from Brunswick, Maine, all the shells are regular, but one has the beak at the anterior fourth of the valve. Lepralia hyalina, Johnston, Leda clay, St. John. Membra nopora pilosa, Johnston, Leda clay, St. John. Ctllepora pumicosa, Ellis, Leda clay, St. John. In this list there are more than thirty species of mollusca, a number large enough to enable us to draw inferences, imperfect No. 2.] MATTHEW — POST-PLIOCENE MOLLUSCA. 113 though they may be, regarding the depth of the sea in which these creatures lived. As I have not visited the Bay Chaleur and am not informed of the exact horizon in the Post-Pliocene deposit of that district, from which the shells recorded in the above catalogue were taken, I am unable to say whether there is a regular gradation from deep water forms in the lower beds to littoral species in the higher, as in the Bay or Fundy, or not : and it will be possible to speak only in general terms of their bearing on the question of the depth and temperature of the sea on the northern confines of Acadia during Post Pliocene time. In the clay-beds of the Bay of Fundy with which I am more familiar, there are proofs of a progressive shoaling of the ocean along this coast during the period named. The lowest beds are a compact clay, which is either red or grey, according as it is derived from the red rocks of the Carboniferous area, or the grey slates, &c, of the region west of it. This compact clay contains very few organic remains, and these are chiefly shells of Portlandia glacialis. At St. John it graduates into fine dark colored clay which varies in tint from dark grey and liver-brown nearly to black, according to the amount of organic matter disseminated through it ; and here the shells of Portlandia glacialis abound. This portion of the clay contains beds of black sand from one to three inches thick, holding Ophioglypha Sarsii, Pandora glacialis, Lyonsia Norvegica ? L. arenosa, Cryptodon sp. ? and other shells, none of which indicate a less depth of water than that of the Coralline zone. These dark beds are in turn overlaid by other red clays which differ from the lower red clays in being of a browner hue and having numerous intercalated beds of brown or grey sand ; these clay beds while they contain Balanus crenatus, Portlandia glacialis, Nucula expavsa, &c. of the lower horizon, have in addition such species as Buccinum undatum, B. tenuer Mya truncata, Macoma calcaria, Saxicava rugosa. A somewhat shallower sea is indicated by the occurrence, at St. John, of clay beds holding Mytilus edulis and Card ium pinnida turn : while a still further withdrawal of the ocean is shown by the contents of the sand beds which cover these clays; these appear to be the equivalent of the Saxicava sand for they contain shells of Mya arenaria and Macoma fusca. While the cnange from deep-water forms to those of the imme- diate sea-shore, gives clear proof of the progressive shoaling of the Post-Pliocene sea in this region, it does not show whether H4 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. this change was a gradual one, or was brought about by sudden and repeated elevations of the land. The mode by which the shoaling of the Post-Pliocene sea was effected is explained, however, by the existence of terraces at several levels on the land near the coast. The change of level was, it would seem, accompanied by rapid elevations, separated by intervals of rest, and the amount of these periodic changes of level can (with cer- tain allowances for the peculiar tidal phenomena of the Bay of Fundy) be estimated with an approach to accuracy. Any indentation of the shore Hue along the coast where sediment could accumulate subject to the wash of the waves, would have sand flats extending to the lowest limit of tide, and in the B;iy of Fundy, where the rise and f Jl of the tides is very great, such flats would have a slope seaward of twenty or thirty feet : if such a plain were lifted above the sea level and terraced by the action of the waves, the resulting terrace would vary between the limits indicated. This is found to be the case near St. John, where the first terrace rises to the height of fifteen feet above the sea. The next, which is much more conspicuous, varies from forty to sixty feet ; and can be seen to be composed of the three subdivisions of the modified drift; viz. Syrtensian beds, Leda ;clay and Saxicava sand. A third terrace begins at the height of about 100 feet and extends to 120 feet. The surface layers on this terrace are coarser than those of the last and consist of stra- tified gravel and sand. Another terrace of similar material was observed at a height of 150 feet, and a fifth at 300 feet. Terra- ces at this height are very gravelly, quite irregular, and cannot always be distinguished from Syrtensian ridges. As those ancient sea-borders are a memento of the rise of the land in Post-Pliocene times, so the composition of the Leda clay in the Southern Highlands of New Brunswick, furnishes a criterion whereby one can judge of the depth of the sea during the whole period occupied in its deposition. In these hills many of the valleys are cut down nearly or quite to the sea level ; and while they are partly filled with modified drift, the neighboring hills are covered to a greater or less degree with Boulder-clay. Leda clay forms a notable part of the modified drift in these valleys, and rises up on their slopes to a height of 200 feet or more. Very instructive sections of these deposits on the east-side of the Nerepis and Douglas valleys in Queen's County were made in grading the track of the E. and N. A. Railway : here, where No. 2.] MATTHEW — POST-PLIOCENE MOLLUSCA. 115 several small streams come off the hills on the western side of the valley, the whole thickness of the " Leda clay," where these streams cross the railway track, presents a succession of sand beds ; but in tracing these beds in the cuttings along the track of the Railway north or south from the channels of the brooks the sand becomes more and more interlaminated with clayey layer until at length the deposit resumes its normal aspect. It thus appears that when the Leda clay of these valleys was laid down, the tops of the neighboring hills were above water, and as the current from the brooks was sufficient to drive off all the muddy sediment in the waters of the Leda clay sea, at their mouths, the depth of the sea above its present level could not have greatly exceeded 200 feet.* The structure and composition of the beds laid down at this period among the southern hills corroborates the result of an examination of the vertical range in the species of shells which the corresponding deposit at the coast contains. Another fact revealed by the examination of these fossils which bears upon the probable depth of the Leda-clay sea is the indication given by the localities of the fossils enumerated in the preceeding list, of a geographical division into two groups, in one of which the species have a more arctic range than the other. Thus on the Bay Chaleur a number of arctic Buccina occur of which only one, B, tejiae, has been recognised in the Bay of Fundy ; and while Nucula tenuis abounds at B.iy Chaleur it has not been found in the clays of the B.iy of Fundy, where its place is supplied by N. expansa. On the other hand several species of the present Acadian marine fauna, such as Lacuna neritoidea, Gardium pinnulatum, and Pecten tenuicostatus occur in the Post-Pliocene of the Bay of Fundy, but have not been found in a fossil state on the Bay Chaleur, though now they are plentiful in its waters. This marked contrast in the grouping of the Post-Pliocene shells of these two bays, cannot be accounted for by differences of latitude alone, but seems rather to have been caused by the existence of a barrier to the free intermingling of the waters of the Bay of Fundy with those of the Gulf of St. Lawrence — a barrier such as would still exist were the interven- ing country depressed to a depth not exceeding one hundred and fifty, or two hundred feet. * I have other facts bearing upon this point which will be presen- ted in a future article. 116 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viH. These considerations relate chiefly to the depth of the sea in which the more highly fossiliferous part of the Leda clay was deposited, but other considerations indicate that the higher parts of the Leda clay were formed in shallower waters. I have men- tioned on a preceding page that the dark colored clays abound- ing with organic matter, and containing shells which indicate the depth of water above named, are overlaid at St. John by reddish clay with sandy layers. Just above the " Falls" of the St. John River in Fairville these upper clays may be seen to rest upon eroded beds of dark clay, and at other points they rest directly upon the tough red clays. This group of beds, which contains fossil shells of the Laminarian zone, appears to have been laid down when the land had risen to within one hundred feet of its present level, and may be denominated the Upper Leda clay. It, together with all the older portionjof the clay deposit, suffered denudation preparatory to the deposition of the Saxicava sand, a group consisting of grey, buff and brown sand, occasionally capped or underlaid by gravel beds ; and which from the occur- rence in it of littoral species only may be regarded as a tidal deposit. [To bring all the known facts relative to the Post-Pliocene de- posits in this region into harmony, it appears necessary to assume that at the beginning of this age, Acadia and the neighboring portions of the American continent were elevated to a height of several thousand feet above the sea, and that the extensive plateau thus formed was bordered on the south by deep oceanic waters. Such a change in the relations of sea and land (accompanied per- haps by similar movements under other meridians in the Northern Hemisphere) would lead to the formation of a glacier zone across New England and Canada, facing a sea open to the influx of heated waters from the equatorial regions. As glaciers formed in this way would receive accessions to their mass on the southern side only, they would bear with immense weight upon the coast line, and (supposing that the earth's crust possesses a certain amount of plasticity) would have a tendency to depress it beneath the sea, causing at the same time a corresponding elevation of the interior region. As the coast-line sank from this cause, the glacier-zone would gradually travel northward, seeking the rising land, and in the deep waters in front of its southern margin, mud and stones swept off the land by the moving ice, would be deposited. Such a deposit would resemble No. 2.] MATTHEW — POST-PLIOCENE MOLLUSCA. 117 the Boulder-clay, and might contain the remains of a few organ- isms capable of withstanding the extreme temperature of an icy sea. The neighboring land would for a time protect this deposit from the action of arctic currents, but as the gradual retrocession of the coastline to the north continued, the polar current would begin to act upon the sea-bottom, and sweep off the finer materials to greater depths in the ocean : deposits formed under these circumstances would resemble the Syrtensian beds. From the recession of the glacier zone to the north a further result would follow : the land relieved from the pressure would rise again ; submerged ridges would come near the surface of the ocean and shut off the polar current ; and in the quiet seas and shallow, sheltered sounds and bays thus made, deposition of fine sediment like the Leda clay would proceed. As a final step in the process of re-elevation the sea bottom would reach the tide level, and sand banks and fl its of material like those of the Saxi- <}ava sand would be formed.] Following this interpretation of the phenomena of the Post- Pliocene period in Acadia (especially for the Bay of Fundy shores) the history of its marine life would be in brief as follows : Original Drift. Boulder-clay. — Depression of the present land beneath the ocean about 2000 to 1000 feet — Life meagre and entirly of arctic forms. Modified Drift. Syrtensian beds. — Depression about 1000 to 500 feet. Present coast line in the Deep-sea-coralline zone. Life probably sparce. Strong ocean currents. Lower Leda Clay. — Depression for the tough (lower) clay 500 to 200 feet : for the dark (upper) clay 100 to 200 feet. Present coast line in the Coralline zone. Life in the older beds a few deep water species ; in the newer an abundance of marine life. Upper Leda Clay. — Depression 100 to 60 feet. Present coast line in the Laminarian zone. Life, fossils less abundant than in the last ; the waters subject to greater disturbance. Saxicava Sand. — Depression 40 (or less) to 60 feet. Present coast line in the Littoral zone. Life, molluscs all of shore- loving species. 118 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viiL Report on the Geology and Resources op the region in the vicinity op the forty-ninth parallel, prom the Lake op the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. By George Mercer Dawson, Assoc. R.S.M., F.G.S., Geologist and Botanist to the Commission ; addressed to Major D. R. Cameron, R. A., Commissioner. Large 8vo., pp. 379, with numerous maps and illustrations. In this volume Mr. Dawson has given us in a very clear and thorough manner the result of his explorations while acting in the capacity of geologist and botanist to the Boundary Com- mission. We have not space in this number for lengthy extracts, but the following from the prefatory note addressed by Mr. Dawson to the Commissioner will serve to give an idea of the character and scope of the work : — "In undertaking single-handed the care of Natural History work in, connection with the Boundary Commission, it was ohvious that in attempting too much it might happen that nothing should be well done. I therefore decided to give the first place to geology ; and in that field to endeavour to work out as far as possible the structure of the country, and to make illustrative collections of rocks and fossils, rather than to amass large local collections at the expense of general information. Such time as could be spared from the geolo- gical investigations has b< en devoted to collection and work in other departments ; and in this Report the results are presented, elabora- ted in so far as the time at my disposal would allow, and supplemen- ted also by several valuable notices of the collections in special departments, by gentlemen whose names are elsewhere stated. " The field work, in extent, has directly covered a region, stretching from the Lake of the Woods, on the east, to the Rocky Mountains on the west, and lying in the vicinity ot the forty-ninth parallel, which here forms the International Boundary. In time it has extended over two seasons, those of 1873-74. Owing to the vastness of the region cover- ed by the operations of the survey, mueh of the period actually spent in the field has been necessarily employed in more or less arduous, and often almost continuous travel. ****** " The main geological result arrived at is the examination and de- scription of a section over 800 miles in length aeross the central region of the continent, on a parallel of latitude which has hereto- fore been geologically touched upon at a few points only, and in the vicinity of which a space of.over 3 *0 miles in longitude has — till the operations of the present expedition — remained even geographically unknown. "In working up the geological material, I have found it necessary to make myself familiar with the geological literature, not only of the interior region of British America, but with that of the western portion of the United States to the south, where extensive and accu- rate geological surveys have been carried on. It has been my aim to make the region near the boundary line as much as possible a link of connection between the more or less isolated previous surveys, and to collect by quotation or reference, the facts bearing on it from either side. In this way it has been attempted to make the forty- ninth parallel a geological base-line with which future investigations may be connected. The matter contained in the special preliminary report on the Lignite Tertiary formation, published last year, has in this final report been included, in so far as necessary to complete the general section on the line." THE CANADIAN NATURALIST (fymxtwty §ounwt oi $t\mt. NOTES ON THE LOCUST INVASION OF 1874 IN MANITOBA AND THE NORTH WEST TERRITORIES. By George M. Dawson, Assoc. R. 8. M., F. G. S. The ravages of the western locust, or devastating grasshopper, have of late years been very great, over all the eastern fertile region of the plains, and the insect has forced itself on the atten- tion not only of the farmer, who directly bears the loss, but also on that of all interested in the western spread of settlement and civilization : liability to its inroads constitutes in fact, at the present time, the greatest difficulty in the way of the rapid occu- pation of a vast tract of otherwise desirable country. While a member of the British North American Boundary Commission, I had the opportunity of passing over a great part of the region subject to the ravages of the locust ; and it was intended to include in my first report as complete an account of the locust raid of* 1874 as I could compile. For several reasons, however, this proved impracticable. Though by circulars, with a list of specific questions, issued for the purpose, much infor- mation was obtained from various parts of British North America, and the Western States, much of it was of a some- what indefinite character. Mr. C. V. Riley, Entomologist to the State of Missouri, has also since published a pretty lull account of the invasion in so far as the Western States of the Vol. VIII. g No. 3 120 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. Union are concerned, in his Seventh Annual Report, to which my information could only enable me to add a few particulars. I therefore present here in a summary form the facts collected from the region lying north of the forty-ninth parallel, as a con- tribution to the history of the invasion of the summer of 1874, and a slight addition to the general knowledge of the locust and its migrations. My thanks are due to the gentlemen who have kindly answered the questions addressed to them, and especially to those who have furnished me in addition with general results of their experience. It now seems certain that the locusts causing such widespread damage on the western plains, belong to a single species, known to entomologists by the name of Caloptenus spretus. For its description, Prof. Thomas' Synopsis of the Acrididae, or Mr. Riley's report above mentioned, may be referred to. The locust is a native of the high and dry western portion of the interior plain, and not of the alpine vallies of the Rocky Mountaius, as at one time supposed. North of the forty-ninth parallel, the whole area of the third, or highest prairie-plateau, and probably much of the second, are congenial breeding places, and here the locusts are always in greater or less numbers, but in certain seasons they sweep eastward and southward in immense hordes, reaching to, and even beyond the limits of the region of prairie. In range, the insect is not bounded westward by the Rocky Mountains, save where they coincide with the eastern unbroken front of the western forest region, as in British America. They extend southward at times to the Raton Mountains, and iuto Texas, while to the east they have spread to the prairie country of the Mississippi, and on more than one occasion have penetra- ted far into Iowa. Northward, they appear to be limited by the margin of the coniferous forest which opportunely follows the line of the North Saskatchewan River. It is difficult to ascertain exactly what the causes are which lead, or drive the locust in certain years to leave its western habitat, though it is possible that simply an excassive increase in numbers may bring about that result. Only a mere fraction of the vast multitude of eggs deposited can under ordinary cir- cumstances come to maturity, and their vitality and the survival of the young insects, may depend on so many circumstances, climatic and otherwise, that even on the above simple supposi- No. 3.] DAWSON — THE LOCUST INVASION. 121 tion a broad margin of uncertainty appears. It is probable, however, that the great locust invasions are the resultants of the actions of many agents, favorable or otherwise, all which it is highly desirable should be known as a preliminary to methodical and carefully devised efforts towards amelioration. The spring and summer of 1874 in the northern part of the interior region were unusually dry, A dry climate is generally supposed to be favourable to the locust, and chiefly to the greater dampness of the eastern cultivated region is attributed the deterioration in vitality of the insects produced in a following year from eggs laid by an invading swarm. It is also noticed that iu the eastern region the insect seldom survives to a third year. Over the western breeding-grounds, therefore, a dry and temperate spring may enable great numbers to come to maturity ; while the continuance of the drought, combmed with the unusual abundance of locusts, may tend to bring about wholesale emi- gration. The locust has, however, many specific enemies, of which Mr. Riley catalogues four. Trombidium sericium and Astoma gryllaria are mites and external parasites ; Tachina anonyma and Sarcojphaga carnaria, flies, the larvse of which feed on the grasshopper and live within it. All these, or at least represen- tatives of both classes, appeared with the locust swarms in Manitoba in 1874, and the insects of some swarms appear to have been weak and sickly from the number of parasites clinging to them ; circumstances lessening to a considerable degree the damage done by the insects, and the vitality of their eggs. The quantity of locusts destroyed by birds, especially while the insects are quite young, must be very great, and it has even been suggested that the rapid succession of invasions during the last few years may be due to the destruction-of game birds, especially the prairie chicken. It would hardly seem, however, that this is by itself sufficient cause, though it may be one among the many. The position of Manitoba near the north-eastern limit of the range of the locust, is in so far favourable, as it is only exposed to invasions from directions included between west and south, and the prevailing winds being north-westerly and coinci- ding with the direction of the migration instinct of the insect, carry the greater number of the swarms from their breeding places to the South-Western States. The northern situation of 122 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viJL the province also tends to exempt it from a double visitation, first from southern, and then from northern and north-western broods. This Mr. G. M. Dodge shows, has occurred in Nebraska, southern swarms arriving as early as May and June, and others in July and August. The number of grasshoppers borne to Mani- toba is, however, more than sufficient, and in the neighbouring State of Minnesota, according to Mr. Solberg, the grain destroyed in 1874 by the insects is estimated at over 5,000,000 bushels ! The years in which the locust has appeared in Manitoba in great numbers, are as follows, as far as I have been able to learn : — In 1818, six years after the foundation of Lord Selkirk's colony, they arrived on the wing in the last week of July, and destroyed nearly all crops except wheat, which being almost ripe partly escaped. Eggs were deposited, and in the following spring wheat and all other crops were destroyed as fast as they appeared above ground. In 1819 eggs seem again to have been deposited,* and in 1820 the crops are said once more to have suffered greatly. The next recorded incursion is that of 1857, from which it would seem that for 36 years the insect had not appeared, or at least not in numbers sufficient to attract atten- tion. In 1857 the crops are said to have been so far advanced as to escape great damage, but eggs were left, and in 1858 all the young grain was devoured. We do uot now hear of them for five years, but in 1864 they again appeared, but neither the adults nor the young of 1865 were sufficiently numerous or wide- spread to do much injury. They did not visit the province in 1866 ; and in 1867, though numerous swarms poured in, they arrived late in summer, and did little damage, showing a practi- cal exemption for nine years, or since 1858. In 1868, however, tVe young brood devoured everything, causing a famine. They left Portage La Prairie in a southerly direction. Foreign swarms again arrived in 1869, but too late for the crops, which were very bountiful. The young in 1870 did much harm, but were, I am told, chiefly confined to the vicinity of the Red River, not extending up the Assiueboiue as far as Portage La Prairie. In 1872, fresh swarms arrived, but as usual too late to do much damage to wheat. Eggs were, however, left in abundance in the northern part of the province, and about Winnipeg and Stone Port the farmers did not sow in 1873. The young grasshoppers were migrating southward up the Red * Hon. Mr. Gunn states from fresh swarms in August. No. 3.] DAWSON — THE LOCUST INVASION. 123 River Valley before their wings were fully developed. In 1874, winged swarms again came in from the west, leaving an abun- dant deposit of eggs over all parts of the province. The records thus include, for this area, a period of fifty-eight years, and during that time locusts may be stated to have appeared either on the wing from abroad, or directly from the egg, in numbers sufficient to attract attention, in fifteen seasons, but caused wide-spread and serious destruction of crops in ten years only. The record shows an exceptional and alarming increase in the frequency of invasion of late years, an increase which has also been noticed in the Western States, and which though no doubt partly due to the fact that larger tracts have come under cultivation and consequent observation, apparently leaves a balance in favour of some real cause of increase ; and this it should be the object of every one interested in the matter, to ascertain if possible. In 1874, in British America, it would seem that no locusts were produced from the egg east of the 103rd meridian, and per- haps not east of the 104th, though southwards, in Dakota, some are said to have hatched near Minnie Wakan Lake, long. 99°, and the young insects also appeared in several localities on the Missouri River, near long. 101° lat. 47°. From various places included between the 104th and 111th meridians, and the 49th and 53rd parallels of latitude, the insects are known to have been produced in large numbers ; and from the outcoming direction of swarms, and other facts, it may be safely concluded that eggs were hatched in many places over this great uninhabited tract. The young locusts do not seem to cover uninterruptedly any great area, but to occur in extensive patches here and there, where flights of the preceding season have rested. Nor do the separate swarms arrive at maturity at exactly the same time, though a sudden change in the weather, and more especially of the wind, may cause a nearly simultaneous departure of broods from a large tract. In 1874, in the area in question, movement appears to have begun late in June, and continued during July ; the direction of flight where it has been recorded, lying between east and south. On July 12th, I observed swarms ready for flight on the high plains near White Mud River (long. 107° 35' lat. 49°.) The day was hot and calm, and though many of the insects were on the wing at all altitudes, they were following no determinate direction, but sailing in circles and crossing each 124 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Yol. viih other in flight. The greater number were hoveriDg over the swamps or spots of luxuriant grass, or resting on the prairie. < A slight breath of wind would induce them all to take to wing, causing a noise like that of the distant sound of surf, or a gentle breeze among pine trees. They appeared ill at ease, and anxiously awaiting a favourable wind. These eastern and northern hordes were those which afterwards fell on Manitoba, though a part of those hatched near the 49th parallel probably went south of that line. The dry season must have brought them to maturity rapidly, for in some parts of the province they arrived earlier than before known, though coming from the latest hatching grounds. When examined in detail, the advance of the host loses to a considerable extent the definite form which it appears to have when more broadly viewed ; for the grasshopper, like a sailing vessel, depends on the wind for propulsion, not having intrinsic power of swift flight ; and the movement of the different bands is affected by all the mutations of the weather. Even omitting a few dubious dates, the well authenticated ones show a difference in the times of arrival in some parts of Manitoba, not corres- ponding with their geographical position. It appears certain that one extensive swarm traversed a part at least of the province north-eastward. They reached the Red River further south at Scratching River on July 11th. We hear of them on July 8th and 10th at St. Norbert, on the 14th at Winnipeg ten miles off, on the 17th at Little Britain seventeen miles further in the same direction. Swarms also arrived at Fort Ellice — 180 miles west of Red River — with a similar direction of flight, on July 14th, or on the same day that they arrived at Winnipeg. These must have been a separate body travelling parallel to the first. These dates only refer to the first arrival of locusts in consi- derable numbers, and the localities mentioned were afterwards traversed by other swarms. The second main direction of inva- sion, was from west to east, with occasional slight local deviations, and was that followed by most of the insects. Bands first appeared within the limits of the province on the Assineboine River at Portage La Prairie on July 3rd. They seem to have travelled eastward along the river, reaching Poplar Point — fifteen miles off, on July 12th ; other and very extensive swarms are heard of north-westward of Portage La Prairie, at Beautiful Plain on July 15th, at Burnside, July 17th, Palestine, July 19th ;, No. 3.] DAWSON — THE LOCUST INVASION. 125 and on the 18th and 19th at St. Laurent, on the eastern shore of Lake Manitoba. On July 11th we find other hordes at Pembina Mountain, on the boundary line, and these in the course of their migration reached West Lynne on the Red River — thirty miles distant on the 15th. On July 11th the front of the various swarms would be approximately bounded by a line drawn from Pembina Mountain on the forty-ninth parallel, to Scratching River, thence following the Red River to a point between St. Norbert and Winnipeg, from there probably bending southward through a region for which we have no information, but again turning northward, and striking the Assineboine a few miles west of Poplar Point, and thence running — though no doubt with many flexures — north- north-westward. It will be observed that while great swarms of the locusts had thus nearly reached the eastern border of their range, there were still immense numbers just beginning their migration ab^ut the 107th and 110th meridians. These are no doubt the hordes which according to the Hon. Mr. McKay arrived in Manitoba during August. The directions taken by the insects on their departure from the various localities in Manitoba, show much diversity. They often remain some time on the ground, and after depositing their eggs they are weak and their organization is broken. The most astonishing fact in connection with the habits of the locust is the fixed determination of the swarms to travel in a certain direction, and the wonderful instinct which leads them to wait for a wind favouriog their intention. The usual direc- tion of migration when swarms fall upon the cultivated lands and settlements, is south-eastward or eastward, and to this there is abundant testimony. There is evidence, however, that the insect occasionally migrates in great bodies in a nearly opposite direction, and in 1S75 it would appear that many swarms, the progeny of those of 1874, have shown a like decided inclination to travel northward, toward the breeding grounds of their parents, whfle yet in their full strength and vigour. It would be a fact surpassing in interest the journeys of birds of passage, if it should be found that the locust requires two generations to complete the normal cycle of its migration. The locusts are recorded on one occasion at least (1867, by Prof. Hind) to have reached the shores of the Lake of the 126 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. Woods, but I have not heard that they did so in 1874. Their limit in this direction is pretty definitely fixed by the western margin of the great woods, about long. 96°. They did not appear at Fairford Port, on the northern part of Manitoba Lake, nor at Swan Lake House (long 100° 30'. lat. 52° 40'), Cum- berland House (long. 102° 30', lat, 54°), Prince Albert (long. 105° 30', lat. 53° 10'), or Fort Pitt (long 109° 20', lat. 53° 30'). They are very seldom seen at the second, and never at the third and fourth of these localities. The exemption of Prince Albert is noteworthy and instructive, as, on the testimony of several gentlemen acquainted with the locality, it is due to a belt of coniferous timber, which stretches between the North and South Saskatchewan Pvivers here ; and though grasshoppers in great abundance have visited the country south of the line thus formed, they have never been known to cross it. The only crops which under ordinary circumstances the locust will not eat, appear to be sorghum and broom corn ; but besides a general preference for those plants which are tender and juicy, it shows a considerable degree of aversion to certain species, and these generally escape when the insects are not in very great number. Potatoes, beets and tomatoes are usually thus exempt, and a very decided dislike is shown to the Leguminosce or plants of the pea and bean family. May not this last fact serve to explain, to some extent, the vast number of leguminous plants found on the western plains, which have no doubt been subject for ages to the ravages of grasshopper armies? In Astragalus pectinata the leguminous flavour is developed to a very offensive extent. I have seen A. adsurgens stripped of its flowers by the locusts, while the leaves, though young and tender, remained entire. Experience abundantly proves that in years when foreign swarms are to be expected, wheat is one of the safest crops, as it is very generally too far advanced to be much injured at the time of their arrival. It is essential, however, that it should be as early as possible. It seems hardly necessary at this date, to review all the means which have been proposed or tried, on a more or less extensive scale, to protect crops from winged swarms, or to destroy the eggs and young insects. Methods applicable with advantage to well settled countries, are not useful, or only to a very limited extent, in those with much waste land in proportion to the cul- No. 3.] DAWSON — THE LOCUST INVASION. 127 tivated, yet by persistent and combined effort much may be done towards the protection of limited areas, by disturbing and har- rassing the winged insects on their arrival in summer, and by collecting and killing the eggs aud young brood in autumn and spring. A great area of the western plains incapable of cultiva- tion or use for other purposes than stock raising, must, however, always remain as a breeding place for the locust, and it is only by the application of some broad and general remedy, if such can be found, that permanent amelioration can be effected. It would seem possible by an organized system of supervision, and the division of a large part of the prairie region into blocks protected by rivers and other natural fire-guards, aud by ploughed lines, to prevent the general spread of prairie fires in the autumn, and afterwards to destroy the young locusts by burning the grass off over those areas found to be tenanted by them in spring. A similar course is urged by Dr. Studley as worth trial. Mr. Mair informs me that it has been attempted in the spring of 1875 near Portage La Prairie without effect; but by choosing a time when the grass is dry, the wind moderate, and the young insects pretty well advanced, it seems scarcely possible that many should escape. Again, when winged swarms are known to be moving on the province, making use of a similar system of fire-guards, it would be possible to form by preconcerted firing a strip of black country of great width, altogether beyond its limits, over which it is improbable the locusts wonld voluntarily attempt to pass. The extensive planting of trees in all the cultivable districts, besides probably effecting a climatic change causing increased damp and rainfall, which would be unfavourable to the locust, would so break up and divide the now uniform surface of the country as to prevent the destruction of crops being so universal as it now sometimes is. Coniferous trees, from the experience of Prince Albert Post, seem specially worthy of attention.* It is my intention in a future paper, to summarize and discuss the facts concerning the grasshopper visitation of 1875, with especial reference to Manitoba and the North-west Territories, and I shall be much indebted for any particulars which will help me in this object. * This and other points will be found more fully treated in my Report on the Geology and resources of the regions in the vicinity of the 49th parallel, 1875. 128 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. VliL The following is a summary of the more important items of information for the summer of 1874, the localities being arranged in order from west to east: — Battle River and Red Deer River, North West Territory. — (W. McKay, from reports of H. B. Company's officers) A tract of country extending sixty miles north and south, and fifty miles east and west between Battle River and Bed Deer Biver. Grass- hoppers produced from the egg about the beginning of June. Left about the end of July, going southward from the Battle Biver. Fort Pitt, North West Territory. — (W. McKay). Did not appear within 140 miles of this place. Observations in the vicinity of Wood Mt. and Westward. — On the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th of July, I noticed grasshoppers in great abundance on the high plateau of Wood Mt. (long. 106° 30') and its vicinity. They were migrating eastwards with the prevailing winds during the warm hours of the day, and flying at a great height. On the 12th they were met with in vast num- bers covering the country to the west of White Mud Biver (long. 107° 35'.) Swarms were also observed by other members of the Boundary Commission parties, on the 9th, 10th and 11th of July, at numerous points between long. 108° and 109° 30', the last named meridian being about the western limit of the main horde at this time. Their general direction of travel was eastward, with the wind. On July 11th, their course is stated at several localities to have been south-east. It would thus appear that on July 9th to 11th, the width of the belt of grasshopper-covered country was about 150 miles on the forty-ninth parrallel, stretching from beyond the West Fork of Milk Biver nearly to Wood Mountain. Carleton Rouse, North West Territory. — (L. Clarke.) Pro- duced from the egg in 1874 almost immediately after the disap- pearance of the snow, early in May. When full grown took flight southward. Foreign swarms appeared in the beginning of September and stayed all the autumn. No crops put in here. Mr. Clarke writes : — East of this there is a settlement called Prince Albert, about fifty miles distant. Between us and this place there is a tract of sandy soil covered with a forest of fir. No. 3.] DAWSON — THE LOCUST INVASION. 129 Strange to say the grasshoppers have been in myriads from Carleton to the boundary of this timber, but none on any occasion have ever passed it, or troubled the farmers of Prince Albert. Prince Albert, North West Territory .— (Philip Turner). No grasshoppers appeared here. Missouri Coteau, North West Territory.— Long. 105° 30',lat. 49° 30'. On June 19th, 1874, I passed over about twenty miles of country near the western edge of the Tertiary Plateau, which was covered with young grasshoppers, not yet able to fly. Fort QiCAppelle, North West Territory.— (Wm. J. McLean.) Produced from the egg, hatching from early in May to the beginning of July. On July 25th began to take flight, going south-east by south. Foreign swarms were first observed about July 20th coming from north-west, and north-west by-uorth. Continued passing for ten or twelve days, and remained on the ground only while contrary winds lasted. All were gone early in August, and no eggs were deposited. Crops totally destroyed before the insects began to fly. Mr. McLean observes, that the insects before they were able to fly, took certain directions for several days at a time, and all travelled simultaneously in the same direction. In 1875 full grown insects appeared June 17th in myriads. Seemed to come from about the same direction in which they flew from here last year, but rather more southerly. Wood End, North West Territory.— Long. 103°, lat. 49°. Dr. Burgess on July 1st and 2nd noted grasshoppers flying westward with the wind. They are said to have been very numerous. (The wind at Wood Mt., 150 miles further west, was variable on these days, changing from south-east on the first, to east-north-east, south and north-north-east on the second.) The observed direction of flight is abnormal. Cumberland House, North West Territory. — (H. Belanger.) Grasshoppers never known to appear here in swarms. Fort Ellice, North West Territory. — (R. McDonald.) Not produced from the egg here. Arrived in swarms July 14th, from the south-west. Left July 17th, after devouring all the crops, going north-east. Eggs were deposited and some were 130 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. observed to hatch in the autumn. (On June 7th, 1875, the young insects had already destroyed all growing crops.) Swan Lake House. North West Territory. — (D. McDonald.) The grasshoppers did not appear here this summer, and are said to do so very seldom. Beautiful Plain, North West Territory. — (Prof. Bell, Geolo- gical Survey of Canada.) Not produced from the egg here. Swarms arrived on the wing July 12th and were nearly all gone July 15th. Came from the west, and departed about east-south- east. Eggs were deposited in great numbers in gravel and sand ridges, on badger mounds, &c. Very few were observed to hatch in autumn. Between Prairie Portage and Headingly about two-thirds of crop destroyed. Manitoba House, North West Territory. — (J. Cowie, J. P.) Not produced from the egg here. Swarms arrived about the third week of July, from the south-west, but not in great num- bers. Passing over the place for about a week, going generally south-east. Eggs were deposited. Crops destroyed, about one-tenth. None were seen to the north of this place. Multitudes were drowned in the lake (Manitoba Lake), on the shores of which they were piled up in masses three feet deep. Fairford Post, North West Territory. — (J. Cowie, J. P.) No swarms of grasshoppers have as yet appeared here. Palestine, M. — (D. Ferguson.) Not produced from the egg here. On July 19th a few appeared, and were afterwards fol- lowed by great swarms coming from the north-west. Insects left about July 30th, going north-east. No eggs deposited. Destruction of grain total, of potatoes one-fifth. Burnside, M.—(K. McKenzie) . Half-breeds told Mr. McKenzie that grasshoppers were very thick in the Saskatchewan country, and within sixty miles of Burnside on July 14th; on July 17th they arrived. Came from the west, and kept pouring in till July 22nd, being most numerous on July 19th. By July 29th had nearly all gone. Direction of flight on departure east or north-east. Eggs were deposited. Wheat crops at Burnside averaged 16 to 20 bushels per acre against 28 to 32 in former years ; in western settlements not No. 3.] DAWSON — THE LOCUST INVASION* 131 4 bushels per acre. Oats and barley nearly all destroyed. Pota- toes not much damaged. Turnips half* crop. Peas uninjured. Carrots nearly all taken. Onions one half. Beets and mangolds hardly touched. The grasshoppers made their appearance, especially in the western part of the province, earlier than ever before. Mr. McKenzie was informed by the half breeds that the insects hatched at Qu'Appelle and other western localities, and that very few were left there to deposit eggs in the autumn of 1874* Mr. McKenzie also writes, " I was at Lake Manitoba, twelve miles north, about August 10th. Grasshoppers were dead and dry on the shore from four to ten inches deep, and from twenty to thirty feet wide as far as I could see all along the beach." Portage La Prairie, M. — (Charles Mair). Not produced from the egg here. Swarms first seen about July 3rd, coming from the west. Left about July 10th, going eastward. Many eggs deposited. Crops destroyed. Oats seven-eighths, barley three-fourths, wheat one-half. Potatoes not much injured ; gardens much damaged. Mr. Mair also observed the grasshoppers to be covered with parasitic mites, and the presence of the larva of an ichneumen in the bodies of many of the insects. Poplar Point, M. — (L. W. McLean.) Not produced from the egg here. Swarms first appeared July 12th from the west. Insects left about the last of July, going east. Eggs were deposited. Barley and oats totally destroyed, wheat one-third. Pembina Mt., M. — (Lt. Col. French, Commissioner N. W M. P.) First met large flights of grasshoppers at Pembina Mt., July 11th. They were going eastward, and continued to appear for several days while Col. French travelled westward but were afterwards no more noticed. The grass from La Roche Percee to the Old Wives Lakes, and possibly to the Cypress Hills, appeared to have been eaten down by grasshop- pers. In the vicinity of the Three Buttes, no such appearance. They nearly destroyed a field of grain sown by the Mounted Police at Fort Ellice. 132 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. St. Laurent, M. — (J. Mulvihill.) Not produced from the egg here. Swarms appeared July 18th and 19th from the west and north-west. Left about August 4th, going southward. Eggs were deposited. At least one-fourth of crops destroyed. Heading]}/, M. — (John Taylor). Not produced from the egg here. Swarms arrived from the south, and from the west, about the first week of August. The majority remained till about the first of September and then weut southward. Some stayed till the end of September. Eggs were deposited and a few of them hatched in the autumn and the young insects were killed by the frost. About half the crops destroyed. St. Charles, M. — (W. Adshead). Not produced from the egg here. Appeared about the middle of June (?) from the west. Most remained till killed by frost, though a few went southward after depositing their eggs. Destruction of barley and oats total, wheat one-third, potatoes somewhat injured. Rochwood, M. — (J. Robinson). Not produced here from the egg. Swarms appeared about the last of July from the south and west. Departed about the middle of August, going south and west. Eggs were deposited, a few were hatched in autumn and the insects destroyed by frost. More than half the crops destroyed. Scratching River, M. — (W. C. Cowan). Not produced from the egg here. Swarms arrived July 11th, from the southwards, bearing westerly. Left July 16th, going northward. Eggs were deposited and some insects came out and were killed by the winter. Crops destroyed, two-thirds. West Lynne, M. — (Colton M. Almon.) Not produced here from the eg^. Swarms arrived on July 15th, about 11 a.m., from the westward. Commenced rising early on the morning of July 22nd, and by noon had disappeared. Direction of flight, north. Eggs were deposited, and it is reported that many hatched in the autumn. Oats and barley, two-thirds destroyed, wheat about one-fourth, potatoes a little damaged. St. Norbert, M. — (Joseph Lemay, M. P. P.) Not produced from the egg here. Swarms first seen July 8th or 10th, and arrived both from the south-west and north-west. Remained about seven weeks, departing south-eastward. Eggs were depo- No. 3.] DAWSON — THE LOCUST INVASION. 133 .sited, but many said to have been destroyed by " small red insects." The whole of the oats and barley, -three-fourths of wheat, and four-fifths of garden stuff destroyed. St. James, M. — (Hon. J. McKay.) Mr. McKay furnishes various particulars, from which I extract the following points of interest : — No grasshoppers were hatched in Manitoba in 1874. The nearest breeding ground for the swarms is said to have been about 250 miles west, and thence to extend westward for about 400 miles. The nearest swarms moved in July and passed St. James overhead, going eastward, about the end of July. Other swarms from further west arrived about the beginning uf August, and left after a few days without doing much damnge. Then came larger swarms till the middle of August, carrying every- thing before them. Estimated that two-thirds of crops of entire province destroyed. Winnipeg, 31. — (James Stewart and R. H. Kenning). Not produced from the egg here. Swarms arrived July 14th from south-west, and the majority remained about two months, leav- ing about the middle or end of September, and going to the west and north-west. Many remained, however, till killed by frost. Eggs were deposited about the end of August, and it is reported that some young insects came out and were destroyed by frost in autumn. The whole of the oats and barley, and about one- fourth of wheat destroyed. Mr. Stewart observed that nine-tenths of the grasshoppers had small red parasites under the wing, and that those remaining late in the autumn had, almost invariably, each a fully developed grub within it. Little Britain, M. — (Hon. D. Gunn.) Not produced from the egg here. Swarms first appeared July 17th, from the south and south-west, and continued passing over the settlement till the last of August. Those that alighted deposited eggs, and generally left afterwards east or south-east. Many eggs depo- sited. Crops destroyed, about one-third. In a more recent communication (February, 1876), Mr. Gunn states that, the spring of 1875 having been late, the young locusts from the eggs began to appear about the tenth of May, and continued to come out until the end of that month. They 134 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vili were very numerous and destructive, but he noticed that many were attacked with a small red parasite. When mature, the swarms went, in part at least, to the north ; and some were stated to have deposited their eggs near Lake Winnipeg. Other facts contained in Mr. Gunn's letter I hope to include in the report for 1875. Stone Fort, M. — (W. Flett.) Appeared in swarms from the south and south-west, generally departing easterly. Eggs depo- sited, and some hatched in autumn. Cook's Creek, M. — (G-. Miller.) Not produced here from the egg. Swarms appeared about July 26th from the north- west. Remained about two weeks and departed south-eastward. Many passed overhead without alighting. Crops about two-thirds destroyed. St. Ann's, M. — (J. H. Stanger). Not produced from the egg here. Swarms first seen July 22nd, and coming from west- by-south. Continued arriving and departing for about two months, some leaving in the latter part of September, but many remaining till they died. The first swarms went from here east- ward, the last more to the south. Eggs were deposited and some were hatched in autumn. Barley, oats, potatoes and vegetables suffered most. Some wheat escaped. Peas suffered least of all field crops. No. 3.] ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 135 NOTES ON NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA.* By Alexander Caulfield Anderson, J. P. (Formerly of the Hudson's Bay Company.) Watersheds. — The main continental watershed is of course the general line of the Rocky Mountains, which continue through Alaska to the extreme point, near Cape Lisburne. There is, however, an exception to this general rule near the heads of Peace River, where the main chain is disrupted, and the waters originate in the Peak Range of Arrowsmith's Map, which range here forms an extraordinary loop with the main line. Both afterwards unite with the N.W. Coast Range, and continue as one. nearly as far as the 60th parrallel, where a divergence again takes place, and the Southern Coast Range of Alaska originates. The Sierra Nevada, the chief range of California, sepa- rates near the frontier of Oregon ; the eastern branch, known as the Blue Mountains, dividing the waters of the main Colum- bia River from those of its great tributary, the ' Snake ; the western, under the name of the Cascade Range, continuing north-westward into British Columbia, as far as the junction of the Thompson with the Fraser in 50° 13', where it terminates. The Cascade Range is disrupted at a point between Mounts Hood and St. Helens ; the Columbia River then breaking through and forming a strong rapid known as the " Cascades," whence the name given to the range. This name, however, originates not from any peculiarity in the rapid itself, but from several lofty waterfalls, formed by streamlets pouring down the perpendicular face of the disrupted mountain in the immediate vicinity. The height of the passes in this range varies from 3,000 to 5,000 feet ; the peaks sometimes rising to an altitude of 15,000. Mount Rainier, the most lofty of the northern por- tion, has an elevation of 12,360 feet. Most if not all of these summits are volcanoes, either extinct or in partial eruption at distant intervals. It may here be mentioned that the term * Descriptive matter intended to accompany a " Skeleton Map of North-West America," prepared by Mr. Anderson to send to the Phila- delphia International Exhibition of 1876. Vol. VIII h No. 3. 136 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. 11 Cascade Range," through a total misapprehension of the leading features of the country, has of late years been extended so as to include also the North-West Coast Range, from which the true Cascade Range is geographically quite distinct. Hence much confusion has arisen. Against this perversion I have always protested ; and now once more endeavour to restore the distinc- tion before most properly made by the original explorers, and established on their maps. The North-West Coast Range, just referred to, originates opposite to Langley near the mouth of Fraser River, and con- tinues north-westward, nearly parallel with the coast, till it is merged in the Rocky Mountains between 56° and 57Q — thus forming the whole western watershed of Fraser River, as the northern part of the Cascade Range, with its offset connected with the Rocky Mountain Columbian spur, does the eastern. The contour of this range, especially on the coast-ward side, is extremely broken and irregular ; its rugged spurs forming the sub-divisions between the numerous arms with which the north- west coast is indented. As we advance northward, however, the summit itself is not of a broken nature ; but exhibits a vast plateau, yielding lichens and other congenial vegetation, together with a stunted growth of pines in parts. This portion of the range is the resort of innumerable Rein-deer of the mountain variety, and abounds also with Ptarmigan. Its elevation opposite to Bentinck Arm, between lat. 52° and 53°, is 4,360 feet, and at the head of Bute Inlet Pass, where the char- acteristics are somewhat different, 3,117 feet ; but there are other points where depressions occur, as for instance between Stuart and Babine Lakes, where the altitude does not probably mnch exceed 2,000 feet above the sea level. The highest sum- mits in parts, rise to about 10,000 feet; but amid the general ruggedness of contour there are no strikingly conspicuous peaks as on the Cascade Range. Diverging from the Rocky Mountains near the 49th parallel is the ridge forming the Southern and Eastern Watershed of Hudson's Bay. — Under the varying cognominations of Coteau de la Missouri, Coteau des Prairies, &c, this watershed, pas- sing the heads of the Red River, forms the northern and western boundaries of the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and, dividing Labrador, terminates at Hudson's Strait, opposite to Southampton Island. The average elevation of the Prairie T$0. 3.] ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 137 portion of this ridge, as given by Mr. G-. M. Dawson, is 2,000 feet. The western and northern portions of this vast watershed are the Kocky Mountains as far as the head of the North Saskatchewan. From this portion of the watershed, in about lat. 6-1°, the range forming the Arctic watershed diverges, termi- nating at the mouth of the Mackenzie. Alaska. — The Kwitchpak or Yukon is the principal stream of this extensive region — a river of very considerable magnitude. The Hudson's Bay Company have long had posts on the upper waters of this stream, within the British territory ; but it is chiefly from the reports of the party sent for exploration in con- nection with the projected telegraph through Siberia that our knowledge of the lower portion is derived. Thence it appears that the river is navigable for steamers for 1,000 miles or more ; that the ice breaks up about the 23rd of May, and that naviga- tion is practicable about the 25th. The length of the Yukon, including its windings, I compute to be about 1,600 English miles. The volume of water ejected by it, according to the accounts received, is probably not less than that emitted by the Mackenzie ; but the area drained by it and its tributaries (about 229,000 square miles) is very much smaller. Hence it may be inferred that the snow-fall in the mountains of Alaska is proportionately heavy, a result readily conceivable from its geographical position — directly interceptive of the vapour-drift from the Pacific. The upper portions of the Yukon and its tribu- taries, the Porcupine and other streams, are well wooded, and abound with animals yielding furs of a quality peculiarly fine. Moose-deer are numerous along the rivers and in the lower eleva- tions. In the more precipitous ridges of the mountains the Wild Goat is found ; on the sloping spurs the Mountain Sheep or Big- horn. Rein-deer are numerous ; the larger variety frequenting the interior parts, the smaller, or Barren-ground Rein-deer the coast- ward tracts. Fish of various kinds are numerous in the waters; and among these, two varieties, at least, of Salmon periodically ascend from the sea. The larger of these (Salmo dermatinus, of Richardson) attains a weight of from forty to fifty pounds ; the smaller ($. consuetus) from twenty to twenty-five pounds. The natives of the interior of Alaska, distinguished as the Koochin tribes, are a branch of the great Dinnee (or ' Tinneh') family. The Koochins have the character of being industrious, and are in many respects a somewhat superior race. They are divided into some 138 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viiL twenty or more different septs, each bearing a specific cognomen with the general affix " Koochin," meaning I believe "people." Approaching the coast the country assumes the generally deso- late aspect of the Arctic Ocean confines, and the Esquimaux occupy the immediate sea-board. It is probable that with time mineral deposits of various kinds may be developed in Alaska. So far copper is known to exist in parts ; and during the past summer some gold-seekers have been working upon streams falling into Cook's Inlet, the daily yield of whose labours is re- ported to have been moderately productive, averaging from $4. 00 to $5.00 per man. Fossil ivory, as on the Siberian shore, is known to exist in the northern part of Alaska, adjoining Behring's Strait.* The name Alaska I believe to be a modifi- cation of the term for this coast employed by the natives of Kamtchatka ; who,according to Benyowski (Voyages et Memoires, &c. Paris 1791) distinguished the main shore of America as Alacsina (or Alacsa), the termination being apparently an affix. The Point " Le Grande Alacsina" mentioned at page 413 of vol I, I identify with what is now known as Cape Prince of Wales. Mackenzie River. — This river, with its tributaries, drains an area of about 520,000 square miles, or more than double that drained by the Yukon. Its length from the mouth on the Arctic Ocean to its remote heads in the Bocky Mountains, by the line of Peace Biver, and including windings, is little, if at all, short of 2,000 miles. Unlike the Yukon, there are several lakes of very large dimensions connected with it. The lower part of the Mackenzie shares the generally barren and inhospit- able nature of the Arctic coast ; and there is little vegetation beyond a few stunted willows, the cranberry, the widely distri- buted "Labrador Tea" (Ledum palustre) and other products of a congenial class. Yet even amid this scene of desolation, Mackenzie noticed, in July, tracts of luxuriant grasses mingled with gay flowers, covering the iec-bound soil ; just as navigators have noticed the same seeming anomaly in Kotzebue Sound and elsewhere along the Strait of Behring. Bein-deer are the only species of the family found here ; Foxes of several varieties, includ- ing the white ( Vulpes Lagopus) occur ; also the Marmot, the Bear, * Kotzebue, in 1816, when landed on Chamissa Island in Kotzebue Sound, discovered the remains of Elephas primigenius, apparently portions of a large deposit, imbedded in the land ice. No. 3.] ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 139 &c. In addition to the many kinds of migratory water-fowl that resort to these localities to breed, the white G-rouse or Ptarmigan (Lagopus albus) appears abundantly as a permanent resident, as indeed along the whole Arctic watershed and the shores of Hudson's Bay. The White-fish (Coregonus), several varieties of Carp, Trout, and other fish, including the Inconnu (probably grayling, Thymallus signifer, of Richardson ?), are common to the stream and its tributaries. The Pike also is found, but no Salmon ascend this river ; which in this respect forms probably the solitary exception among all the larger streams from Cali- fornia upwards to this point. For the deficiency of this valu- able fish there is no apparent cause ; nor does there seem to exist any reason why it should not be artificially introduced at some future day. Higher up, as we approach the discharge of the Great Bear Lake, the evidences of an improving climate appear. The Service-berry (Amelanchier), the Wild Gooseberry and other fruits are common ; the country throughout is well timbered, chiefly with varieties of fir and pine ; and a greater variety of beasts of the chase, including the Moose, the Beaver, &c, appear. Little has been ascertained of the mineral characteristics of the lower Mackenzie ; but Sir Alex. Mackenzie, whose name it bears, mentions a seam of coal (or lignite ?) which was on fire when he passed in 1789 ; and which was noticed by Dr. Rich- ardson, still in a state of ignition, as late as the year 1848. Upon the heads of the Riviere aux Liards, an extensive tribu- tary joining from the southward, productive gold-beds have been wrought for the last three years ; and here, within the limits of British Columbia, under the name of " Cassiare," a settlement has been formed in connexion with this alluring, if precarious, industry. This river, it may be mentioned, derives its name from the profusion along the banks of its lower portion, of the Cotton-Wood Poplar (Liard = Pojmlus balsamifera.) It is needless to add that in the mouths of the many, the name has already been wonderfully transformed. Peace River. — The lower portion of this tributary of the Mackenzie, after its junction with the Athabasca, where it is upwards of a mile in breadth, is known as the Slave River ; a name originating with the Cree Indians, who applied. the desig- nation (Awah-can, or slave) in derision of the lower Chipewy- ans, who were formerly treated by them as enemies, and whom they had driven from their lands. Towards the end of the last 140 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. Vlii. century a general pacification of the hitherto hostile tribes took place, a treaty of amity having been concluded at the spot since known as Peace Point. Hence the name of La Riviere a la Paix, now translated into " Peace River," given to the stream by the first explorers. Its original name, however, is Unjigah,. the signification of which, if haply it have a signification, I have never been able to ascertain. The whole extent of country through which this noble river flows, from the point where it breaks through the Rocky Mountains (vide supra) to its junc- tion with the Athabasca, is very attractive, and a vast area for future settlement is presented. The want of space will prevent my dwelling on the charming features exhibited by this beauti. ful region ; and I merely remark that its general characteristic is that of extensive plains, stretching on either side clear up to the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains and their several spurs, and amid which groups of aspens, &c, are picturesquely interspersed. With reference to the climate of this portion of the country, the mere consideration of latitude would, if entertained, mislead the uninformed enquirer very gravely. A glance at the isothermal lines will show that leaving the Atlantic coast they trend abruptly northward till they reach the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains ; and finally the actual difference of the mean tem- perature as between positions on the Atlantic and the Pacific, may be stated in approximate terms as about ten degrees Fahren- heit in favour of the latter. Hence the denizens of the Peace River country and the Saskatchewan enjoy a climate far more genial than might be supposed. The confined space at my dis- posal prevents my entering upon any prolonged discussion of this interesting theme, to which, however, I may again inciden- tally refer. I content myself by remarking that the snow, in most parts, seldom accumulates to a greater depth than eighteen inches on the levels, the warm south-west winds, of frequent recurrence during the winter, at once diminishing it, or at times removing it almost entirely from all the lower land. The river opens about the 25th of April, and is closed for navigation at the beginning of November. I shall here, however, avail myself of the valuable notes of Professor J. C. Macoun, drawn from the railway reports and other sources. At Fort Vermilion on* the 6th of August (1875), lat 56°. 42', barley ripe and cuty and on the 12th wheat and oats fit for reaping. At Fort McMurray at the forks of the Athabasca, an excellent garden No. 3.] ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 141 containing many kinds of vegetables, including fine cucumbers. At Isle a la Crosse (English River) potatoes still in the ground on the 22nd September, there not having been any frost up to that date. Mr. Selwyn, Director of the Canadian Geological Survey, is reported to have brought down samples which will doubtless appear at the Centennial Exhibition ; viz. : Spring wheat from Fort Chipewyan (Athabasca Lake), lat. 58° 45', weighing sixty-eight pounds to the bushel — sown May 22nd, reaped in August. Barley from the same place weighing fifty- eight pounds to the bushel ; and oats from Fort St. John on the Peace River, on the verge of the Rocky Mountains. The leading vegetable forms observed by Mr. Macoun in the Prairie section around Dunvegan, are as under : — Anemone Virginiana. Oxytropis splendens. " patens. Elseagnus argentea (Silver-berry..) Geum triflorum (Bennet.) Vicia Americana (Vetch). Potentilla arguta. Artemisia frigida. " Pennsylvania. " discolor. Amelanchier Canadensis, (Service Bromus Kalmii. berry.) Triticum repens, &c. Achillea millefolium, (Yarrow or Aira casspitosa. Millefoil). Lathyrus ochroleucus. Rosa blanda. Foa serotina. Hedysarum boreale. Stipa Richardsonii. Solidago (Golden Rod), two species. " membrancea. Aster multiflorus. Trisetum subspicatum. " lasvis. Calamagrostis Canadensis. Orthocarpus luteus " stricta. Troximon glaucum. Mr. Macoun adds that every plant on this list grows also at Edmonton, on the Saskatchewan, and all grow where wheat will come to perfection. But nothing, perhaps, can more satis- factorily prove the true prairie character of the country than the fact mentioned by Mr. Macoun, that at Dunvegan he found growing the Disc-leaved Cactus (fipunita Missouriensis) which is always indicative of a dry locality with a considerable degree of mean annual heat. The whole of this region once abounded with herds of Bison, as still do parts of the Saskatchewan ; but the remnants are now found only in remote places on the outskirts of the Rocky Mountains. Other beasts of the chase, such as the Rein-deer and the Moose are still numerous ; while in the mountainous parts the Rein-deer, the Goat, the Mountain Sheep, the ordinary varieties of the Bear (black, brown and grizzly), &c, abound. 142 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. Athabasca River. — This is reached on crossing the divide, between it and Peace River. The summit of this divide, com" posed of a swampy plateau with a vegetation of corresponding nature, does not probably exceed 2,000 feet in height — that of Lesser Slave Lake, on the one hand, andDunvegan on the other, being estimated, the former at 1,800, the latter at 1,000 feet above the sea-level. The banks of the Athabasca River are generally less inviting in appearance than those of the Peace. The lower portions, however, present many attractive features ; and the climate, as indicated by the extract given above, is en- couraging for agriculture. The borders upwards, are for the most part thickly wooded with the 'Spruce and Cypres (Pinus Bank- siana) interspersed with the Balsam Poplar, the White Birch, and other deciduous trees. Animals of the various kinds mentioned abound throughout in theii fitting localities, while fish of the finest description are yielded by the lakes. Athabasca Lake, it may be here mentioned, is noted for the innumerable flocks of water-fowl which resort thither as a favorite breeding place, and which at the proper seasons yield store of food to the inhabi- tants. The mineral riches of the tract drained by these large rivers are varied ; at the head of the Peace, ou the borders of the Peak Range, there are extensive gold diggings, known as Omin- eca, which are moderately productive, though now partially abandoned for richer fields. Coal, reported to be of good quality? is found at several points upon the Athabasca ; while favourable indications appear upon the Peace. Bituminous pits exist in several places along the lower Athabasca ; yielding an appa- rently inexhaustible supply of pure mineral tar. The product of some of these, duly prepared by boiling, &c, has long been used for pitching the boats employed for transport. Smoky River, falling into the Peace above Dunvegan, has its name from beds of coal or lignite, which were on fire when Europeans first visited the country, if indeed yet extinct. Mineral Salt is found between Athabasca and Great Slave Lakes. Near the mouth of the " Salt River" it appears in the form of a thick incrustation on the borders of the springs, and requires merely to be shovelled into bags. The salt thus procured has from the first been the sole resource of the European residents, and is of an excellent quality for all domestic purposes. The Barren Grounds may be defined as extending from the watershed immediately north of Churchill River to the No. 3.] ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 143 Mackenzie, along the slopes towards Hudson's Bay and the Arctic Ocean. As shown in a previous note, referring to Isle a la Crosse, the soil and climate along the upper portion of the former stream are sufficiently favourable for agriculture ; but lower down, and proceeding northward and westward, the whole region is extremely desolate and inhospitable. This is occupied by a portion of the great Chipewyan or Tinneh tribe, who regard it as the cradle of their race, whence they claim to have spread in other directions. Little description of this desolate region is necessary, beyond that information which the general reader will already have acquired from other sources. A few stunted shrubs of the hardiest kinds — dwarf birch, willows and the like — scantly clothe the more favoured spots along the water- courses ; while elsewhere various lichens, the peculiar food of the Rein-deer, interspersed with stones and stagnant water-pools, alone characterize the dreary scene. Yet amid these unattrac- tive wilds the natives obtain an abundant, if at times preca- rious, subsistence, by fishing and the chase. Rein-deer (of the smaller variety) are extremely numerous during the period of their northern migration, commencing in March ; and the Musk- Ox (Ovibos Moschatus) finds in these solitudes a congenial and perennial field. On the immediate sea-frontier the Polar Bear appears ; but no other of the larger quadrupeds than those enume- rated I believe is found. The Beaver, common to nearly every portion of North America, shuns a scene where all its industry would fail to procure its living ; and it is not till the hunters reach the line of about the 65th parallel that they are able to procure the fur of this animal for the purposes of barter. The Ptarmigan is found in abundance, as also the White Fox ; with Wolves, some of which are white, and in parts the Arctic Hare (Lepus variabilis'). Most of the lakes are well stocked with White-fish and other kinds ; and probably Salmon,of some of the numerous varieties, ascend all the larger rivers between the Churchill and the Mackenzie, in neither of which do they appear. A variety called the " Copper Mine River Salmon" (Salmo Hearnii of Richardson) is known to ascend the river of that name ; and the native name of the Back River — Thhu-e-chodezeth (or tesse) — lead some to infer that that also is frequented either by this or some other variety. (Thleu-e-cho, literally " big-fish," employed by the Tali-cully of the upper Fraser to designate the sturgeon, is on the Mackenzie applied to the salmon of the 144 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii.. Yukon). Of the minerals in this quarter little can be said ; but from the name of one of the rivers before mentioned, and from report, we may be justified in believing that rich deposits of copper, at least, exist. The Esquimaux occupy the whole sea-board. The Portage a la Loche, or Methy Portage. (Methy = Loche = Fresh Water Cod = Gadus barbatula f) is on the dividing ridge between the waters flowing to Hudson's Bay by the valley of the Missinipi, and those tributary to the Macken- zie through the Athabasca. The summit of this portage, which is elevated very considerably above the general level, has an altitude above the sea, as given by Mr. G. M. Dawson on the authority of Dr. Richardson, of 1566 feet ; but this estimate strikes me as somewhat underrated. The length of the portage is thirteen miles, over a level sandy plateau, stony in parts, and wooded with the Banksian Pine, the Spruce, and other trees. The northern side is a steep escarpment, descending by eight successive stages, all more or less precipitous, to the borders of the Clear-water, which flows by a course of some eighty miles, through a charming valley of mingled plain and forest, to the Athabaska, the breadth of the united stream being about three- fourths of a mile at the point of the union, called " The Forks." It is by this route, and the Portage de la Traite on the opposite side of the Missinipi Valley, that the transport is effected between Athabasba and Lake Winnipeg via the Saskatchewan. This last portage has its name from the circumstance that Mr. Frobisher, the pioneer trader from Canada, here intercepted a large party of Indians on their way to Churchill in 1774, and secured their hunts. By the Crees this portage, from an old tradition, is called Athikesi-picMgan Portage — i. e. Portage of the Stretched Frog-Skin. Hence, I presume, the name applied to it in some recent maps " Frog Portage" — but it is better known by the name given above. Saskatchewan. — The general features of the tract drained by this river and the other tributaries to Lake Winnipeg are so well known that any attempt at description would be superfluous. The total area so drained, and discharged through the Nelson River, I compute at 376,000 English square miles : the length, including windings, from the mouth of the Nelson to the heads of the Saskatchewan, about 1,500 miles. The descent for a certain distance from Lake Winnipeg towards the sea,by the series No. 3.] ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 145 of lakes terminating in Split Lake, is necessarily very gradual ; thence, consequently, to its mouth the Nelson rushes with great impetuosity. It is owing to the series of rapids thus formed that the navigation of the lower parts is avoided ; and the ordi- nary boat route from York Factory to Lake Winnipeg is through Hayes' River and its connected waters, and over the divide by portage, striking the waters of Lake Winnipeg below Norway House. Thence to Edmonton on the Saskatchewan there are no impediments to the navigation of any moment, save the Coles' Rapids, near the confluence of the north and south branches, some twelve miles in length, which are navigable with care and skill, and the Grand Rapid near the mouth, where the river bursts through the ridge of limestone which forms the north- western boundary of Lake Winnipeg. The Saskatchewan becomes free from ice about the same time as the Peace River ; but the navigation from Edmonton is rarely attempted before the middle of May, when the waters have usually risen enough to float the loaded bateaux over the frequent shoals. Much of what has been said of the Peace River might be repeated of this region. The vegetation has the same general characteristics, and the climate is not dissimilar. Of minerals it may be re- marked that coal has been discovered in thick seams in the vicinity of Edmonton ; and Mr. Selwyn is of opinion that, by boring, the seams may be struck at a small depth at various points, at least as low as Carlton near the confluence of the two branches. I may here incidentally mention that both at Edmonton and at Carlton the development of goitre in the permanent residents is not uncommon. At the last mentioned post I have seen a whole family thus afflicted — the children exhibiting the marks of advanced cretinism. I am induced to think that the constant use of the river water, which is extremely turbid for the greater part of the year, without filtering or other prepara- tion, is the proximate cause of this affliction, which does not attack the roving population, who are not confined to the use of the river water. The digging of wells, in such case, suggests the obvious remedy. I may add that I arrive at the conclusion stated the more readily, because that on Peace River, where the evil is also manifested in less marked degree, I have known a family who had partially contracted the disease during a long residence at Fort Vemilion, to entirely recover after a compara- tively short residence at McLeod's Lake, at the head of Peace 146 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. River, where the waters are pure and limpid. There may, however, be deeper latent causes ; but I suggest these which appear to me the more obvious. Yet even under this view there is a difficulty ; for on Fraser River, where a similar condition of the water might be argued to produce a similar effect, no case of the kind has ever appeared. The Saskatchewan, like the Mackenzie, the Churchill, and I believe all the rivers falling into Hudson's Bay, is destitute of Salmon. The West Side of the Rocky Mountains. — This region must be noticed very briefly. The lengths of the Fraser flowing entirely, and of the Columbia partially, within the limits of British Columbia, are respectively, including windings, the former about 800, the latter 1,200 miles ; the approximate areas of drainage being, by the Fraser 66,400, by the Columbia 215,900 square English miles. Immediately on crossing the Rocky Mountains by the heads of the latter river, after the autumn frosts have already invaded the eastern side, a great improvement in the temperature is perceptible, while all the external evidences of a warmer climate appear. Descending the Grande Cote, within twenty miles of the summit, huge trees of the " Red Cedar" {Thuja gigantea of Nuttall) are for the first time seen ; and lower down the timber and other vegetation are also different. About Colville the Columbian Red Pine (Pimm ponderosa) and the Larch (Larix occidentalis) of large dimen- sions are seen — the latter confined apparently to the vicinity of the 49th parallel, the former extending north-westward nearly to the great divide beyond the Thompson, and westward to the head of Anderson Lake near the Coast Range. About one hundred miles below Colville the borders of the great Columbia Desert are reached ; extending thence, with occasional oases, as far as the Dalles of the Wascopum ; and by the Snake River finally meeting with the deserts of the Youtah. Artemisia, the Cactus, and other congenial plants, characterise the whole of this arid tract ; while the more favoured spots, near the water-courses, yield abundant pasture of rich Bunch-grass, and are extremely fertile. At one point upon the Okinagan River, this arid waste extends for a short distance into British Columbia ; and I do not question that, acting as a great reservoir of heat, the vast expanse exercises a marked influence on the temperature of the whole vicinity ; and to the extension of this influence, partly, in conjunction with the warm winds from the Pacific, I ascribe No. 3. J ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 147 the general mildness of the climate upon the Peace River. On the lower Columbia, and through Oregon to California, the country is too well known for its fertility and resources to require comment. British Columbia. — In British Columbia proper, the gene- ral features may be thus briefly summed up. Westward of the North-West Coast Range the whole tract is excessively moun- tainous, and penetrated by numerous inlets of the ocean. East- ward of the Coast Range (besides the intervening portion of the Cascade Mountains in the southern part), numerous ridges of moderate elevation appear, between which are broad valleys of great fertility, abounding with rich pasture, and partaking gene- rally of the prairie character. The upper portion is more densely wooded, with fertile openings at intervals. The lower portions, along the line of the Fraser, with a generally dense growth of gigantic timber, present openings in parts of great fertility. The whole of the north-west coast, with a portion of Vancouver Island, is richly clothed with valuable timber of stupendous growth. In minerals the whole province is extremely rich. Nearly all the eastern coast of Vancouver Island abounds with coal ; the most southern portion yet discovered being at Saanich near Victoria, where there is an apparently rich seam. The coal is esteemed of excellent quality, the chief export at present being from Nanaimo and its vicinity ; and though some mines are wrought upon the neighbouring mainland, bordering on Puget Sound, the product does not command an equal price in San Francisco, nor is it apparently in demand. Iron ore, of the finest quality and easily accessible, with limestone for smelting purposes in the vicinity, exists in inexhaustible quantity on Texada Island near Nanaimo. Gold is found at the well known " Caribou Mines" ; at the " Omineca"(i.e. " Mountain Whortle- berry") diggings at the head of Peace River ; at the head of the Dease tributary of the Riviere aux Liards, called " Cassiare" from the name of the reputed discoverer ; on the upper waters of the Columbia near the Big Bend ; on the Koutanais and elsewhere both on the mainland and Vancouver Island* Silver, not yet productively worked, exists in various parts of the Pro- * The total yield of gold, however, from British Columbia in 1875 did not probably exceed three millions of dollars, of which about five-sixths only passed directly through the Banks. 148 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. vince, and especially at Cherry Creek near the head of the Okin- agan Lake, and at a point near Hope on the Lower Fraser. Copper is generally distributed along the north-west coast, in some parts very abundantly ; but so far has not been effectually wrought. A very rich deposit of galena, yielding a moderate percentage of silver, exists on the Flat-bow Lake (Koutanais), but the posi- tion is too remote and inaccessible for its profitable working. The Islands of Queen Charlotte, from what is already known, will probably be found extremely rich in all the metals men- tioned, iron perhaps excepted. A seam of Anthracite coal of excellent quality was for a time worked there ; but for some reason has been abandoned.* Prominent Vegetation in this Section. — (1.) Along the north- west coast : Douglas Fir (A. Douglassii, Lindl.) ; Spruce Fir (A.Menziesii) ; Hemlock Fir (A. Canadensis or Mertensiana f) ; " Red Cedar" (Thuja gigantea, Nutt :) "Yellow Cedar" or Cypress (Cupressus thyoides, Doug.) &c. : all of gigantic growth. Undergrowth : various shrubby Vaccinia ; the " Sallal" (Gual- theria shallon) ; varieties of Rubus, Ribes, &c. In rare posi- tions low specimens of Mountain Ash [Soi*bus aucuparia) and Service-berry (Amelanchier) . (2). Along the vicinity of the 49th parallel as far as the Rocky Mountains. I here adopt the list of Dr. Lyall of the British Boundary Commission, reported in the proceedings of the LinnEean Society (Botany, vol. VII.) including my own occa- sional and purely unprofessional notes in brackets, thus [ ]. (a). In the vicinity of Victoria and Esquimault, Vancouver Island : — Pinus contorta, Doug. ; Taxus baccata [brevifolia, Doug.] ; Abies Douglasii, Lindl. ; A. Menziesii, Lamb ; Thuja gigantea, Nutt. ; Cerasus mollis, Doug. ; Arbutus Menziesii, Pursh \laurifolia, Doug ?] ; Quercus Garryana, Doug. [In a pamphlet recently sent to me by Dr. Robert Brown (Campster), of Edinburgh, he describes a second variety of Oak nearly allied to that mentioned, which, after Sir James Douglas, K.C.B., the late Governor, he calls Q. Jacobi. I may here mention that the oak, which is common in the north-east parts of Van- * To the vast mineral riches of certain Territories south of the Boundary Line, I make no allusion, regarding these as entirely beyond my ken. No. 3.] ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 149 couver and the adjacent Islands, is not found in any part of the mainland of British Columbia.* The Oak (Q. Garry ana) is common on the lower parts of the Columbia River somewhat re- mote from the ocean ; ceasing abruptly at the Dalles of the Was- copum, above which there are none]. Species of Acer, Betula, Alnus and Salix are plentiful. Among the common shrubs are Mahonia, Ceanothus, Nuttalia, Spirma, Rosa, Ribes, Vaccinium, Salix, Gaultheria, &c. Among the most conspicuous flowering plants in the early part of the season are several species of Ranunculus, of Claytonia, of Potentilla, and Saxifraga ; Plectritis congesta, Collonia gracilis, Collinsia violacea, Dode- catheon Meadia, species of Fritillaria and Trillium, Camassia esculenta (Scilla esculenta, of Douglas). &c. (b.) Along the lower Fraser : the several firs mentioned as found on the north-west coast, with also Thuja gigantea [but not Cicpressus thyoides, which is peculiar to the coast vicinity, north of 49°, extending far into Alaska.] The circumference of a Douglas fir measured by Dr. Lyall was nearly thirty feet at five feet from the ground, and the length of a fallen tree mea- sured, 250 feet, but neither an extraordinary specimen. [The height frequently exceeds 300 feet.] Circumference of a Thuja measured 26 feet 9 inches, at six feet from the ground ; estimated height 250 feet [frequently exceeds this]. Inter- spersed among the trees mentioned are specimens of Acer macro- phyllum, Pursh \_Platanus acerifolia, of Douglas ?] sometimes attaining a height estimated at 150 feet — circumference of one measured twenty feet. Along with these the Vine-leaved Maple, Acer circinatum, Pursh ; Dog-wood (Comus Nuttalii) ; Alnus viridis, &c. ; Betula occidentalis, Hooker, and Populus balsami- fera of large size. [To these I may add that the White Pine (P. strobus), of magnificeut dimensions, is common towards the summits of the southern portion of the Coast Range, and is found also, but of smaller size and more rarely, in the moun- tains of Vancouver Island. I have also noticed it in abun- dance and of fine size on the Cascade Range, about the skirts of Mount Rainier], The under-shrubs consist chiefly of the fol- * I noticed about a score of small trees in the portages above Yale on the Fraser Kiver, as far back as 1847 ; but it is questionable if any one of these now remains. 150 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. lowing : MaJionia, two species ; Acer glabrum ; Spircea, several species; " Sallal" (Gaultheria shallon, of Pursh) ; Rubus and Ribes, several species ; Lonicera, two species ; Viburnum opulus ; Vacciniiim, several species ; Panax horridus. [By this last I conceive to be meant the Bois piquant, or " Prickly ash," a species of Aralia (?) Common in the damp vallies of the north-west coast, and re-appearing near the heads of Peace River and elsewhere along the verge of the Rocky Mountains.] (c). On the Cascade Range: Abies amabilis, Doug, [also found on the lower lands] ; A. grandis ; Picea nobilis, Don. [balsamea, Doug. ?], &c. [In this section are alse noticeable a fine red-flowering Rhododendron, (macrophyUum of Don.) ; two varieties of 31enziesia (often mistaken for Heath) ; and among the numerous cyperaceous plants and Equisetse the American Hellebore [Veratrum viride) is very common.] (d.) [Approaching the Columbia River : As the valleys assume the Prairie character Pinus ponderosa and Larix occiden- talis become common, as already mentioned (Supra). Dr. Lyall remarks : " The vegetation here is of a very different character " from that on the other side of the Cascade Mountains, and " bears indications of much drier climate. A good many of the " plants found in this region are strictly local in their distribu- " tion. Some of the orders such as Ranuncidacew, Vacciniaceaiy 11 Liliacew, &c, of which species are so plentiful in the first " region, have here comparatively few representatives ; whilst " others, such as Leguminosew, Onagracew, Polemoniacece, &c. " are more common in this district and give a character to the " vegetation." I may mention cursorily that the Dwarf Sunflower {Helian- thus petriolaris, Nutt.), here very common and characteristic, extends into British Columbia, as far nearly as Alexandria, the natives gathering its seed, and also preparing its root for food. The Flat-leaved Cactus, (Opuntia Missouriensis) too, extends to a point some miles above Alexandria, and downwards along the Fraser as far back as the Forks of the Thompson. It is also found in small patches on dry knolls on certain islands in the Gulf of Georgia ; but not elsewhere in the northern section except, as before mentioned, on Peace River, near Dunvegan, where it was noticed by Mr. Macoun.J no. 3.] anderson — north western america. 151 Distribution of the more prominent Quadrupeds, &c. — Bison (Bos Americanus) : plaios of the Missouri, and of the Saskatchewan as low down as Carlton. Formerly abounded on the Peace River plains, but now rare and confined to the out- skirts. Not found in British Columbia, save perhaps casually in parts of the Rocky Mountain frontier, nor on the Columbia River. Formerly used to descend the Snake River as far as Boisee River, and sometimes even lower. Will soon be all des- troyed I fear. Caribou or Rein-deer (Ccrvus taraudus) ; the larger variety or " Rocky Mountain Rein-deer" ; found in all the mountainous parts of the interior down to a certain latitude. Along the Rocky Mountains this limit I judge to be about lat< 49° ; on the North-West Coast Range probably about 51°. The smaller variety, classed by Richardson as the Rein-deer of the Barren Grounds, is confined to the Arctic watershed during its northward migration (March to the beginning of November) ; frequenting the country around Hudson's Bay, &c, during the remainder of the year. The Moose or Elk (C. alces) is found generally throughout the northern parts of the country, except the Barren Grounds, and the immediate sea-board of Hudson's Bay, &c. ; on the Pacific watershed along the verge of the Rocky Mountains as low as about 49° ; on the upper Fraser, and as low down sometimes, but very rarely, as Fort George. The Chevreuil or Virginian deer is found along the Saskatchewan, but not in the mountainous parts, nor on the north-west coast, where the " Black Tail," (C. macrotis) is abundant. The last is not found on the Fraser higher than Fort George. The Red-deer or Biche (generally, but of course erroneously called " the Elk") is found in large herds over a wide extent of country. A large variety of C. Elaphus, it is classed as C. Canadensis, or the Wapiti. It is common along the Saskatchewan, Peace River, &c, and was so formerly upon the middle Fraser, but is now rarely, if ever, seen there. On Vancou- ver Island and the adjacent mainland very numerous. It is ques- tionable whether there be any specific difference between these and those of the prairies. Bears, Black and Brown, (Ursus Americanus) ; generally throughout the country, except the immediate Arctic shores, where the Polar Bear appears. Grizzly Bear (U.ferox) ; plains of the Saskatchewan, &c, southwards; along the Rocky Mouutains and in most parts of British Colum- bia, except Vancouver Island, and the north-west coast. Musk Vol. VIII. i No. 3. 152 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. Ox (Ovibos Moschatus) ; barren grounds of the Arctic Ocean. Probably frequents a portion of the Arctic slope of Alaska. Not found elsewhere. Lynx of two varieties, the spotted and the grey ; the former confined to the lower country, the latter to the interior. Racoon (Frocyon lotor) ; east of the Rocky Mountains, as far north as Manitoba ; west-coast as high up as about 51°. Mountain Goat (Aploctrus montanus) ; Precipi- tous parts of the Rocky Mountains, coast range, &c, and north- west coast ; not found east of the Mackenzie * Mountain Sheep or Big-horn (Ovis Montana)) along the slopes of the Rocky Mountains and their offsets. Marmot (Arctomys) ; several species, including the Rocky Mountain variety or " Siffleur" (J., pruinosus, Rieh'n.) found in the Rocky Mountains, the Cascade Range and North- West Coast Range. A black variety appears to be found about the heads of the Riviere aux Liards, which I have not noticed elsewhere. Foxes, Red, Black, Cross, &c, are very generally found except on the north-west coast, which, owing probably to the humidity of the climate, they do not appear to frequent. The Arctic or White Fox (Vulpes lagopus) is confined to the Arctic regions and the shores of Hudson's Bay. £The Arctic Hare [Lepus variabilis) appears through < ut the interior of the mainland, north of 49°, in moderately elevated positions ; periodically in excessive numbers. A large variety, more resembling the European Hare, frequents the arid plains of the Columbia, &c] The Marten (Mustela martes, Rieh'n.), the Pekau or Fisher, and others of the same family, throughout the woodland regions. The Common Beaver (Fiber Americanus) and the Musquash (Fiber zibtthicus, Rieh'n) generally distri- buted, except in the Barren Grounds and other similar Arctic positions. The Carcajou or Wolverine, (Gulo luscus, Cuv.) : very generally north of 49°. Wolves of divers varieties, Grey, Black, &c, generally throughout ; a pure white variety being found on the " Barren Grounds." The Common Otter (Lutra Canadensis) throughout. The Sea Otter (Enhydra marina) is found only on the Pacific Coast, from California up to the Kodiak, &c, in which tract the Hair Seal and a large variety of other Phocidce, are also commou ; especially in Alaska, where the chase of the Fur-Seal has long been systematically regulated. * These are the animals described to Mackenzie by the Indians as « White Buffaloes." No. 3.] ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 153 Birds. — Exclusively of innumerable migratory birds, from the Swan and the Eagle down to the Humming Bird (the last confined to the Pacific slope, where it is found as high, at least, as 54° 26', and doubtless beyond), the following permanent resi- dents of utility may be noticed : Ruffed Grouse (JBonasa umbellus, Linn.) ; almost everywhere near streams, &c. Dusky Grouse (Tetras ohscurus, Say), dry stony ridges, Vancouver Island, and mainland inferior north of about 49° on western slope, as high as the vicinity of Alexandria. Spotted Grouse or " Spruce Part- ridge" (T. Canadensis, Linn.) ; dry uplands within certain limits on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. White Grouse or Ptarmigan (Lagopus albus) ; mountainous parts, Vancouver Island and northern mainland ; very numerous throughout the Arctic slopes and Hudson's Bay. Sharp-tailed Grouse (Pedioe- cetes phasianellus, Linn.) ; throughout the great Prairies ; in the prairie-valleys of British Columbia, as high as the vicinity of Alexandria ; and on the Plains of Peace River. Cock of the Plains or "Sage-Cock," (Centrocercus urophasianvs, Bon.); borders of the Columbia Biver, from above Okinagan to the Dalles of Wasco, and throughout the Wormwood deserts. Fish. — Trout of many different kinds ; varieties of Carp and other Cyprinidce. ; the Methy or Loche ; and. many others, including that Prince of fresh-water fishes the White-fish (Core- gonus), are general distributed. The last named (peculiarly a northern fish) appears to be almost universal in the boreal regions, even the lakes of the dreary " Barren Grounds" having their share. Westward of the Rocky Mountains, they are found as low, at least, as lat. 52° ; and probably even somewhat south of that limit. Two varieties of Sturgeon are found, one (Acipense.r Sturio f) in the waters of Lake Winnipeg, the other (A. transmontanus of Richards) a fish of enormous dimensions, in the Columbia and the Fraser. Salmon, chiefly of large size, and of many varieties, ascend all the principal streams between the Sacramento and Yukon, including both those rivers ; and pro- bably several of the streams discharging into the Arctic Ocean ; but as before remarked they do not frequent either the Mackenzie or the Saskatchewan ; nor indeed any of the rivers communicating with the Hudson's Bay. The Pike (Esox lucius), common to the eastern waters, is unknown on the western watershed. To the above list may be added, as frequenting the waters of Manitoba, the Cat-Fish, the Sun-fish, and divers others, some of which are found elsewhere. 154 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vUi. Indians. — The Chipewyan race, who for convenience sake are now classed as the "Dinnee" or " Tinneh" tribes, occupy as will be seen a very extensive tract. They have evidently been great wanderers ; for to them the isolated sept of the Sarcees of the Saskatchewan owes its origin ; and a similar offset, the Klatskanai (now extinct), not very long ago inhabited the high- lands beyond the mouth of the Columbia River, while traces of the language appear even farther south. Dinnee means literally a man, but is sometimes applied in the plural sense, as Ahahto- dinnee, the Mountain men, &c. ; and Sir A Mackenzie's inter- preters, who were from Peace River, so applied it, calling ATascnd- dinnee those whom we now know as the Nasc-otin, i. e. People of the Nas-accoh (Mackenzie's " West-road River.") Generally, however, the term is pluralized by changing it, eastward of the Rocky Mountains, into hanie, westward into otin. as Sih-hanie (or rather Tsack-hdnie) People of the stones or rocks, &c JVasc- otin (as above) : Chilo-otin, People of the Chil-accoh (River), &c. In the Alaska section this affix is changed into Koochin, having the same obvious signification. The Tah-Cully-(otin) Branch, i. e. " People of the deep" (waters being probably un- derstood) inhabit the upper waters of the Eraser, bounded southward by the JShewhapmuch (ch guttural) or Sacliss con- nexion (Atnah or "chin" of Mackenzie). Eastward of the Rocky Mountains the Chipewyans are bounded on the east by the Crees, who pass round the south end of Lake Winnipeg, and continue round the circuit of Hudson's Bay and through Labra dor, to Hudson's Strait, Adjoining the Crees, and following along the upper Lakes and down the Ottawa River, &c, are the Algouquins or Sauteux, called also Ojibways or Chippeways. These are merely a branch of the Crees, aud talk a dialect of the same language. The Assineboines are a branch of the Nadowa- sis or Sioux, and bound the Crees on the south along the course of the upper north Saskatchewan ; succeeded on the west by the Sarcees, the small isolated tribe already noticed. A few fami- lies of Assineboines, abandoning the Prairie habit of the rest, frequent the heads of the Athabasca, among the " strong woods" (whence their distinctive appellation) and are now intercepted by the neighbouring tribes from the remainder of their race. The Black-feet, divided into several septs, as Gros Ventres, Blood Indians, &c, inhabit the prairie tract along the heads of the Saskatchewan and Missouri towards the border of the Sioux. No. 3.] ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 155 Opposite to them, west of the Rocky Mountains, in a small anii'le at the heads of the branch of the Columbia, are the Kou- tananais, a small tribe, numbering in 1848 in all 829 souls. These are isolated from all the surrounding races, and I have never been able to trace their connexion. Adjoining them are the Sacliss (called by the Black-feet " Flatheads") who with their congeners the Shewhapmuch extend nearly to Alexandria, meeting the Tah-Cully branch of the Tinneh race as already mentioned. To the Shewhapmuch the Tah-Cully apply the same name of " Atnah" (= Stranger Race) ; to their neighbors wesward Atnah-yore. Mackenzie who descended the Fraser no lower than the Tah-Cully frontier, and had with him no interpreters through whom to communicate freely with the few men of the lower nation whom he there met. He was thus led to adopt the term " Atnah" as the true name of the tribe- adding, however, the alternative " Chin" which has in reality no existence. The late Mr. Geo. Gibbs, shortly before his death, wrote to enquire the origin of the latter name. To this enquiry I had no opportunity of replying ; and may now state that I believe it to have arisen from misapprehension of the meaning of the Indians while referring to the principal vil- lage, or at least that in the most prominent position, at the con- fluence of the Thompson with the Fraser. This is called ThUk-um cheen (or-chin), the first two syllables very rapidly pro- nounced, and the last strongly dwelt upon. To this village the natives, both above and below, are fond of referring, apparently with some pride, as the chief seat of their section of the gene- ral tribe : and the conspicuous syllable dwelling on the ear of Mackenzie, led him, I imagine, to suppose it was the name given by themselves to their nation. I notice that the late Mr. Simon Fraser, who with Mr. John Stuart first descen- ded the river, now named after the former, in 1808, and a M.S. copy of whose Journal is now before me, was partially misled in the same probable way. He gives the name of the village (but not as of the people) as Cum-chin. The whole ordinary nomenclature of Indian tribes, however, such connexion invaria- bly giving a different, and dersive name, originating in some imputed or imagined characteristic (e. g. Blackfoot, Flathead, Slave, &c), requires to be received with much caution. For this reason, and to avoid the endless confusion of names, I have along the north-west coast reduced them in the map as much as 156 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. VliL possible to classes, on the principle of the " Tinneh." Thus along Paget Sound, &c, I comprise the numerous homish, dmish, and wdmish, all modifications of the same general affix, under one head as the dmish tribes ; and along the west coast of Van- couver's Island, and the adjacent coast southward, the dht tribes, this being the general affix, Nootk-dht, Clayo-qu-dht, &c. North- ward of these the Hdi-dah occupy Queen Charlotte's Islands and the Prince of Wales portion of the Archipelago. On the main- land north of Vancouver's Island and in the Islands of Milbank Sound and connected waters, is the Hailtza connexion ; succeeded northward by the Chimseyan tribes, who occupy as far as Observatory Inlet, near the southern line of Alaska Territory. Thence the Thlinkitt connexion to beyond the Tah-Co River, who are succeeded by the tribe called by the Russians " Kaliu- ches" ; and finally, beyond Cook's Inlet, the Esquimaux. NOTES ON A COLLECTION OF GEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. Collected by WlLLIAM Macleay, Esq., F.L.S., President of the New \South Wales Linnean Society, Sydney, from the coast of New Guinea, Cape York, and neighbouring islands, by C. S. Wilkinson, Government Geologist. {Read before the Linnean Society, Sydney, 28th February, 1876.) I have lately examined a small collection of geological speci- mens, brought from the coast of New Guinea by the President of of this Society, Mr. William Macleay, and which were collected by him when on his recent tour of exploration in the Chevert. These specimens consist of — 1. Quartz porphyry (Palaeozoic), from Cape York, found under- lying beds of Tertiary ferruginous sandstone. 2. Vesicular basalt and brecciated volcanic tufa (Upper Ter- tiary), from Daruley Island. 3. Small concretions of limonite, with polished-looking surfa- ces, dredged up off the coast of New Guinea. 4. Specimens of chalcedony and flint, from Hall's Sound. No. 3.] WILKINSON — GEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 157 5. Oolite limestone (Tertiary), very friable, from Bramble Cay. 6. Yellow calcareous (Tertiary) clay, from Katau River. 7. Yellow and blue calcareous clays (Tertiary), from Yule Island and Hall's Sound. It is with reference more particularly to the fossiliferous clays that I would offer a few remarks. These clays, as indicated by the fossils contained in them, belong to the Lower Miocene Tertiary period. So far as I am aware, this is the first notice of such fossils having been discovered in New Guinea ; and this discovery of Mr. Macleay's is the more interesting inasmuch as the Miocene marine beds, which occupy a considerable area in Victoria and South Australia, have nowhere been found on the eastern coast of Australia, north of the Victorian border — Cape Howe. Refer- ring to this fact the Rev. W. B. Clarke says that, " throughout the whole of Eastern Australia, including New South Wales and Queensland, no Tertiary marine deposits have been discovered." The comparison of this Miocene fauna from a locality so near the equator, with that from higher latitudes, will be important work for a palaeontologist. Professor McCoy has already gone far to prove, from the com- parison of certain Miocene fossils, that the fauna of the Older Tertiary period in Australia was not so restricted in its geogra- phical range as it now is, but was then closely related generically, and even specifically, to that of many parts of Europe and America. And I think that, perhaps, even the few fossils now before us may afford some additional evidence in confirmation of the views of that eminent palaeontologist. The Miocene clay beds of New Guinea, judging from the spe- cimens collected by Mr. Macleay, are exactly similar in litholo- gical character to the Lower Miocene beds near Geelong, and on the Cape Otway coast in Victoria. The fossils from Hall's Sound are unfortunately not in a good state of preservation, being mostly imperfect casts ; but amongst them appear to be the following genera : — Voluta macroptera, a small specimen ; Volula anti-cingulata, Ostrea, Cytheroea, Crassatella f Pecten, Turritella, Natica, Triton ? Dolium f Astarte, Corbula, Leda, Venus, Cyproea, 2 Echinoderms. 158 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. Vlii. Most of the above I have found in the Victorian beds, and two of them have been figured and described by Professor M'Coy in his Decade No. 1 of the Palaeontology of Victoria. The small specimen of calcareous clay from the Katau River on the west side of the Gulf of Papua contains only a few broken fragments of shells ; but it appears to be of the same formation as the clay beds of Hall's Sound or Yule Island. The oolitic limestone of Bramble Cay I believe to be also of the upper beds of this Miocene formation. Mr. Macleay, in his letter to the Sydney Morning Herald of October 11, 1875, describes the formation of Yule Island as a sedimentary rock, nearly horizontal on the sea face, but with a great dip inwards. The rock itself is calcareous, and composed of corals, shells, echini, &c. — in fact a concrete of fossils resem- bling the coral rag of Oxford. Mr. D'Albertis also gives a similar description of the formation of Yule Island, and men- tions the occurrence of basaltic trap in the valleys, and that the higher portions of the hills, which attain a height of 700 or 800 feet above sea level, are composed of coralline limestone. It is worthy of remark that in Victoria the Miocene strata occur in a similar manner — yellow and blue calcareous clays full of fossil shells, overlaid by thick beds of coralline limestone consisting of an aggregate of comminuted fragments of corals, shells and echinoderms. The discovery of these Miocene beds on the southern coast of New Guinea is one of considerable importance. Their occur- rence, I believe, suggests the former land-connection of New Guinea with the Australian continent, and this belief is further borne out by the fact of the shallowness of the intervening sea. I am not aware that any Miocene rocks have yet been identified as such on the northern coast of the Cape York Peninsula ; but it is not improbable that the ferruginous sandstone described by Mr. Macleay as overlying the porphyritic granite at Cape York, and perhaps other Tertiary deposits which may occur in that locality, may be correlated with the Miocene beds on the oppo- site coast of New Guinea. Wallace, referring to this subject in his very interesting and valuable work, The Malay Archipelago, says : — il It is interest- ing to observe among the islands themselves how a shallow sea always intimates a recent land-connection." . . . " We find that all the islands from Celebes and Lombock eastward exhibit No. 3.] WILKINSON — GEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 159 almost as close a resemblance to Australia and New Guinea aa the Western Islands do to Asia." And again — " Australia, -with its dry winds, its open plains, its stony deserts, and its tem- perate climate, produces birds and quadrupeds which are closely related to those inhabiting the hot damp luxuriant forests which everywhere clothe the plains and mountains of New Guinea." Baron von Mueller's remarks on some of the Papuan plants collected by Mr. Macleay are also evidence in favour of the former land-connection of New Guiuea with Australia, so that our geological evidence is supported by that of zoology and botany. From geological data it is believed that this continent has not been submerged to any great extent, since the Lower Pliocene period ; and we know that it has risen a little since the Upper Pliocene epoch, at least in Victoria, for the lava flows of that age, now forming the Werribee Plains, were submarine flows. And Mr. Daintree, formerly Government Geologist of Queens- land, shows, in his pamphlet on the Geology of Queensland, that little upheaval of this portion of Australia has taken place since the volcanic outbursts of a late Tertiary epoch. Now, it is in the Upper Pliocene or Pleistocene deposits that are found the remains of the gigantic marsupials — Biprotodon, Macropus, Titanotherium, and others ; and, as their allied representa- tives now occupy both Australia and New Guinea, it is not im- probable that those gigantic animals whose bones are found in Northern Queensland, also roamed in both those countries. And further, as the luxuriant vegetation and climatic conditions which we suppose to be favourable for the support of those immense marsupials still exist in New Guinea, is it rash to con- jecture that some of these large creatures may be living there at the present time ? Further researches may prove this. I will conclude with the following very apposite extract from Wallace's Malay Archipelago : — " From this outline of the subject, it will be evident how im- portant an adjunct natural history is to geology ; not only in interpreting the fragments of extinct animals found in the earth's crust but in determining past changes in the surface which have no geological record. It is certainly a wonderful and unexpected fact, that an accurate knowledge of the distribution of birds and insects should enable us to map out lands and continents which disappeared beneath the ocean long before the earliest traditions 160 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viil. of the human race. Wherever the geologist can explore the earth's surface, he can read much of its past history, and can determine approximately its latest movements above and below sea-level ; but wherever oceans and seas now extend, he can do nothing but speculate on the very limited data afforded by the depth of the waters. Here the naturalist steps in, and enables him to fill up this great gap in the past history of the earth." THE WINTERS OF 1874-75 and 1875-76. By C. H. McLeod, Bac. App. Sc. The saying " it's all in a bag and must come out," so fre- quently applied to the weather, is in a certain sense true, but we must not be in too great a hurry for the bag to empty itself. This meteoric sack, so to speak, disgorges its contents in an intermittent sort of fashion — now we have heat above the nor- mal, and again an excess of cold. The velocity of discharge varies throughout a day, varies continually ; the means of the elements for a day exceed or fall below those on either side of it, so also the means for a year show a marked difference from that preceding or following it, and the average temperature or rainfall of one season often bears but little resemblance to the same period in another year. On the other hand, given a period of from five to ten years, it is found that the mean of any element for that time does not differ materially from those derived from any other similar period. It therefore takes several years for the truth of the saying above quoted to be verified, and when after continuous observation of an element for the required timey an average or mean for that element is determined, the normal proper to the place and any given time is said to be known ; and this is the average of what we have chosen to term velocity of discharge — to be so determined for each and all of the meteoro- logical elements. How much one of our seasons may differ from another has been most markedly illustrated during the past two winters and it is to that we propose calling attention at present. No. 3.] McLEOD — CANADIAN WINTERS. 161 The following table derived from the observations recorded at the McGill College Observatory, institutes a comparison between the periods we are considering. Winter. Mean Tempe- rature of Dec. Mean Tempe- rature of Jan. Mean Tempe- rature of Feb. Mean Tempe- rature of the season. 1874—75 1875—76 14.60 16.73 5.44 17.73 9.02 14.57 9.69 16.34 It will be observed that between the means for the two sea- sons there is the large difference of nearly seven degrees, and that January of 1876 was warmer than the same month in 1875 by more than twelve degrees, that is, on the average each day of the month was more than twelve degrees warmer than the cor- responding day in the preceding year. The primary cause of this most remarkable discrepancy is, at present, beyond us to discover ; but if it affords any satisfaction to connect it with facts which themselves require explanation we may state that in the winter of 75-76 winds blowing from the south-west to south-east exceded in duration those from the same quarter in the winter of 71-75 by about fifty per cent. Or expressed otherwise, the time during which winds in each season blew between these directions bears about the same rela- tion between themselves as does the average temperature for the seasons expressed in degrees Fahrenheit to one another. The connection is evident, and it is of course also true, that there was during the winter of 1874-75 a great excess of winds blowing from the cold regions to the north and north west. In connection with the table given below, which shows the total precipitation in each month and season, it should be stated that in 1875-76, (taking ten inches of snow" as equal to one inch of water) 79.1 inches only, fell as snow, the remaining 3.67 inches being rain ; whereas in 1874-75 the rainfall only amounted to .48 of an inch. Winter. December. January. February. Season. 1874—75 1875—76 2.20 ins. 3.10 ins. 3.50 ins. 4.61 ins. 1.71 ins. 3.87 ins. 7.41 ins. 11.58 ins. 162 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. The predominance of rainfall during last winter is a natural result of the mildness of the season, and there is apparently also a close connection between the excessive precipitation and in- creased temperature. The two seasons contrast very strongly in other respects beyond a divergence in temperature and rain or snowfall. For while the winter of 1874-75 was characterized by unusual meteoric uniformity last winter was remarkable for its extreme ; the barometer having ranged from 28.766 to 30.989 in the latter season, against from 29.303 to 30.753 in the former ; and the wind's velocity having attained a maximum of 60 miles per hour, or ten miles greater than any previous record. The thermome- ter, too, showed an excessive range, although the minimum is slightly above that recorded in 1874-75, when it reach 24 below zero, while the maximum recorded was 43.5, giving a range of only 67.5 degrees against 77.5 with a maximum of 54 degrees last winter. NOTE ON THE PHOSPHATES OF THE LAURENTIAN AND CAMBRIAN ROCKS OF CANADA. By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.K.S., F.G.S. The extent and distribution of the deposits of apatite contained in the Laurentian of Canada and in the succeeding Palaeozoic formations, have not escaped the notice of our Geological Survey, and have been referred to in some detail in Reports of Mr. Vennor, Mr. Richardson, and others, as well as in the General Report prepared by Sir W. E. Logan in 1863. Some attention has also been given, more especially by Dr. Sterry Hunt, to the question of the probable origin of these deposits.* My own at- tention has been directed to the subject by its close connexion with the discussions concerning Eozoon ; and I have therefore embraced such opportunities as offered to visit the localities in which phosphates occur, and to examine their relations and struc- ture. I would now present some facts and conclusions respecting these minerals, more especially in their relation to the life of the Geology of Canada, 1863 ; Chemical and Geological Essays, 1875. No. 3. J DAWSON — PHOSPHATES OF CANADA. 163 Laurentian period, but which may also be of interest to British geologists in connexion with the facts recently published in the 'Journal' of this Society in relation to the similar deposits found in the Cambrian and Silurian of Wales.* In the Lower Silurian and Cambrian rocks of Canada, phos- phatic deposits occur in many localities, though apparently not of sufficient extent to compete successfully for commercial pur- poses with the rich Laurentian beds and veins of crystalline apatite. In the Chazy formation, at Alumette Island, and also at Gren- ville, Hawkesbury, and Lochiel, dark-coloured phosphatic nodules abound. They hold fragments of Lingulce, which also occur in the containing beds. They also contain grains of sand, and, when heated, emit an ammoniacal odour. They are regarded by Sir W. Logan and Dr. Hunt as coprolitic, and are said to consist of " a paste of comminuted fragments of Lingulce, evi- dently the food of the animals from which the coprolites were derived." f It has also been suggested that these animals may have been some of the larger species of Trilobites. In the same formation, at some of the above places, phosphatic matter is seen to fill the moulds of shells of Pleurotomaria and Holopea. In the Graptolite shales of the Quebec group, at Point Levis, similar nodules occur ; and they are found at Riviere Ouelle, Kamouraska, and elsewhere on the Lower St. Lawrence, in lime- stones and limestone conglomerates of the Lower Potsdam group which is probably only a little above the horizon of the Menevian or Acadiau series. In these beds there are also small phosphatic tubes with thick walls, which have been compared to the sup- posed worm tubes of the genus Scrpulites.% The Acadian or Menevian group, as developed near St. John, New Brunswick, contains layers of calcareous sandstone blackened with phosphatic matter, which can be seen, under the lens, to consist entirely of shells of Lingulce, often entire, and lying close together in the plane of the deposit, of which in some thin layers they appear to constitute the principal part. § Mr. Matthew in- forms me that these layers belong to the upper part of the forma- * Davies & Hicks in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, August, 1875. f Geology of Canada, p. 125. t Geology of Canada, p. 259 ; Kichardson's Report, 1869. § Bailey and Matthew, " Geology of New Brunswick," Geol. Survey Reports. 164 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. tion, and that the layers crowded with Lingulce are thin, none of them exceeding two inches in thickness ; but he thinks that the dark colour of some of the associated sandstones and shales is due to comminuted Linguloe. At Kamouraska, where I have studied these deposits, the ordinary phosphatic nodules are of a black colour, appearing brown with blue spots when examined in thin slices with trans- mitted light. They are of rounded forms, having a glazed but somewhat pitted surface — and are very hard and compact, breaking with glistening surfaces. They occur in thin bands of compact or brecciated limestone, which are very sparingly fossil- iferous, holding only a few shells of Hyolithes and certain Sco- lithus-\ike cylindrical markings. In some of these beds siliceous pebbles occur with the nodules, rendering it possible that the latter may have been derived from the disintegration of older beds ; but their forms show that they are not themselves pebbles. Phosphatic nodules also occur sparingly in the thick beds of limestone conglomerate which are characteristic of this forma- tion ; they are found both in the included fragments of limestone and in the paste. The conglomerates contain large slabs and boulders of limestone rich iu Trilohites and Hyolithes ; but in these T have not observed phosphatic nodules. In some of the limestones the phosphatic bodies present a very different appearance, first noticed by Richardson at Riviere Ouelle, and of which I have found numerous examples at Kamou- raska. A specimen now before me is a portion of a band of grey limestone, about four inches in thickness, and imbedded in dark red or purple shale. It is filled with irregular, black, thick-walled cylindrical tubes, and fragments of such tubes, along with phosphatic nodules — the whole crushed together confusedly, and constituting half of the mass of the rock. The tubes are of various diameters, from a quarter of an inch downward ; and the colour and texture of their walls are similar to those of the ordi- nary phosphatic nodules. Under the microscope the nodules and the walls of the tubes show no organic structure or lamination, but appear to consist of a finely granular paste holding a few grains of sand, a few small fragments of shells without apparent structure, and some small spicular bodies or minute setae. The general colour by trans mitted light is brown ; but irregular spots show a bright blue colour, due probably to the presence of phosphate of iron (vivi- No. 3.] DAWSON — PHOSPHATES OF CANADA. 165 anite). The enclosing limestone and the filling of the tubes present a coarser texture, and appear made up of fragments of limestone and broken shells, with some dark-coloured fibres, pro- bably portions of Zoophytes. Scattered through the matrix there are also small fragments, invisible to the naked eye, of brown and blue phosphatic matter. One of the nodules from Alumette gave to Dr. Hunt 36*38 of calcic phosphate; one from Hawkesbury 44-70 ; another from Riviere Ouelle 40-34; and a tube from the same place 67-53.* A specimen from Kamouraska, analyzed by Dr. Harrington, gave 55-65 per cent. One of the richest pieces of the linguliferous sandstone from St. John yielded to the same cnemist 30-82 of calcic phosphate and 32-44 of insoluble siliceous sand, the re- mainder being chiefly carbonate of lime. Various opinions may be entertained as to the origin of these phosphatic bodies ; but the weight of evidence inclines to the view originally put forward by Dr. Huntf , that the nodules are coprolitic ; and I would extend this conclusion with some little modification to the tubes as well. The forms, both of the tubes and nodules, and the nature of the matrix, seem to exclude the idea that they are simply concretionary, though they may in some cases have been modified by concretionary action. There are in the same beds little piles of worm-castings of much smaller diameter than the tubes, and less phosphatic ; and there are also Scolithus-\ike burrows penetrating some of the limestones, and lined with thin coatings of phosphatic matter similar to that of the tubes. Further, the association of similar nodules in the Chazy limestone with comminuted Lingulce, as already stated, is a strongly confirmatory fact. The tubes are of unusual form when regarded as coprolitic ; but they may have been moulded on the sides of the burrows of marine worms ; or these creatures may have constructed their tubes of this material, either consisting of their own excreta or of that of other animals lying on the sea-bottom. In any case, the food of the animals producing such excreta must have been very rich in solid phosphates, and these animals must have abounded on the sea-bottoms on which the remains have accu- mulated. It is also evident that such gphosphatic dejections •might either retain their original forms, or be aggregated into nodular masses, or shaped into tubes or burrows of Annelids, or, Geology of Canada, p. 461. f Ibid. 166 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. if accumulated in mass, might form more or less continuous beds. The food of the animals producing such coprolites can scarcely have been vegetable ; for though marine plants collect and con- tain phosphates, the quantity in these is very minute, and usually not more than that required by the animals feeding on them. We must therefore look to the animal kingdom for such highly phosphatic food. Here we find that a large proportion of the animals inhabiting the primordial seas employed calcic phosphate in the construction of their hard parts. Dr. Hunt has shown that the shells of Lingula and some of its allies are composed of calcic phosphate : and he has found the same to be the case with certain Pteropods, as Conularia, and with the sup- posed worm-tubes called Serpulites, which, however, are very different in structure from the tubes above referred to. It has long been known that the crusts of modern Crustaceans contain a notable percentage of calcic phosphate ; and Hicks and Hudleston have shown that this is the case also with the Cam- brian Trilobites. Dr. Harrington has kindly verified this for me by analyzing a specimen of highly trilobitic limestone from the Lower Potsdam formation at St. Simon, in which the crusts of these animals are so well preserved that they show their min- utely tubulated structure in great perfection under the micros- cope. He finds the percentage of calcic phosphate due to these crusts to be 1-49 per cent, of the whole mass. It is to be ob- served, however, that the crusts of Trilobites must have consisted very largely of chitinous matter, which, in some cases, still exist in them in a carbonized state. A crust of the modern Limulus, or King Crab, which I had supposed might resemble in this respect that of the Trilobites, was analyzed also by Dr. Harring- ton. It belonged to a half grown individual, measuring 525 inches across, and was found to contain only 1845 per cent, of ashes, and of this only 1*51 per cent, of calcic phosphate. The crusts of some Trilobites may have contained as large a propor- tion of organic matter ; but they would seem to have been richer in phosphates. Next to Ling nice and Trilobites, the most abun- dant fossils in the formations containing the phosphatic nodules are the shells of the genus Ilyolithes, of which several species have been described by Mr. Billings*. Dr. Harrington has * Canadian Naturalist, Dec. 1871. No. 3. J DAWSON — PHOSPHATES OF CANADA. 167 ascertained that these shells also contain calcic phosphate in con- siderable proportion. The proportion of this substance in a shell not quite freed from matrix was 2-09 per cent. These shells have usually been regarded as Pteropods ; but I find that the Canadian primordial species show a structure very different from that of this group. They are much thicker than the shells of proper Pteropods ; and the outer layer of shell is perforated with round pores, which in one species are arranged in vertical rows. The inner layer, which is usually very thin, is imperforate. In one species (I believe, the It. americanus of Billings), the per- forations resemble in size and appearance those in the shells of TerebratulcB. In another species (//. micans probably) they are very fine and close together, as in some shells of tubicolous worms. I am therefore disposed to regard the claim of these shells to the rank of Pteropods as very doubtful. They may be tubicolous worms, or even some peculiar and abuormal type of Brachiopod. In connection with this last view, it may be remarked that the operculum of some of the species much resembles a valve of a Brachiopod, and that the conical tube is in some of them not a much greater exaggeration of the ventral valve of one of these shells r> do than the peculiar Calceolu of the Upper Silurian and Devonian, which has been regarded by some palaeontologists as a true Bra- chiopod. I have not, however, had any opportunity of comparing the intimate structure of CalceoJa with that of these shells. Shells of Hyolithes occur in the Lower Potsdam in the same beds with the phosphatic nodules; and in one of these Mr. Weston has found a series of conical shells of Hyolithes pressed one within another, us if they had passed in an entire state through the intestine of the animal which produced the coprolite. Inasmuch, then, as some of the most common invertebrates of the Cambrian seas secreted phosphatic shells, it is not more in- credible that carnivorous animals feeding on them should pro- duce phosphatic coprolites than that this should occur in the case of more modern animals feeding on fishes and other verte- brates. We may now turn to the question as to the source of the abundant apatite of the Laurentian rocks. Were this diffused uniformly through the beds of this great system, or collected merely in fissure or segregation veins, it might be regarded as having no connexion with other than merely mineral causes of deposit. It appears, however, from the careful stratigraphical Vol. VIII. K No. 3. 168 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viiL explorations of the Canadian Survey, in the districts of Burgess and Elmsley, which are especially rich in apatite, that the mineral occurs largely in beds interstratified with the other mem- bers of the series, though deposits of the nature of veins likewise occur. It also appears that the principal beds are confined to cer- tain horizons in the upper part of the Lower Laurentian, above the limestones containing Eozoon, though some less important deposits occur in lower positions. * The principal apatite-bearing band of the Laurentian consists of beds of gneiss, limestone, and pyroxene-rock, and has a thick- ness of from 2G00 to 3600 feet. It has been traced over a great extent of country west of the Ottawa river, and has also been recognized on the east side of that river as well. The mineral often forms compact beds with little foreign intermixture ; and these sometimes attain a thickness of several feet, though it has been observed that their thickness is variable in tracing them along their outcorps. Several beds often lie near to each other in the same member of the series. Thin layers of apatite also occur in the lines of bedding of the pyroxene-rock. In other cases disseminated crystals are found throughout thick beds of limestone, sometimes, according to Dr. Hunt, amounting to two or three per cent, of the whole mass. Disseminated crystals also occur in some of the beds of magnetite, a mode of occurrence which, according to Dr. Hunt, has also been observed in Sweden and in New York in the Laurentian magnetites of those regions. The veins of apatite fill narrow and usually irregular fissures ; and the mineral is associated in these veins with calcite and with large crystals of mica. In one instance, at Ticonderoga, in New York, the apatite, instead of its usual crystalline coudition, as- sumes the form of radiating and botryoidal masses, constituting the Eupyrchroite of Emmons. Since these veins are found prin- cipally in the same members of the series in which the beds occur, it is a fair inference that the former are a secondary for- mation, dependent on the original deposition of apatite in the latter, which must belong to the time when the gneisses and limestones were laid down as sediments and organic accumula- tions. In all the localities in which I have been able to examine the Laurentian apatite, it presents a perfectly crystalline texture, * Vcnnor's Reports, 1872-73 and 1873-74. No. 3.] DAWSON — PHOSPHATES OF CANADA. 1G9 while the containing strata are highly metamorphosed ; and this appears to be its general condition wherever it has been examined. Numerous slices of the more compact apatite of the beds have been prepared by Mr. Weston, of the Geological Survey; but, as might be expected, they show no trace oY organic structure. All direct evidence for the organic origin of this substance is therefore still wanting. There are. however, certain considera- tions, based on its mode of occurrence, which may be considered to afford some indirect testimony. If, with Hunt, we regard the iron ores of the Laurcntian as organic in origin, the apatite which occurs in them may reason- ably be supposed to be of the same character with the phosphatic matter which contaminates the fossiliferous iron ores of the Silurian and Devonian, and which is manifestly derived from the included organic remains. If we consider the evidence of Eozoon sufficient to establish the organic origin, in part at least, of the Laurentian limestones, we may suppose the disseminated crystals of apatite to represent coprolitic masses or the debris of phosphatic shells and crusts, the structure of which may have been obliterated by concretion- ary action and metamorphism. Such Silurian beds of compact and concretionary apatite (without structure, yet manifestly of organic origin) as that described by Mr. Davies in the ' Journal ' of this Society, may be taken as fair representatives of the bedded apatite of the Laur- entian. Further, the presence of graphite in association with the apatite in both cases may not be an accidental circumstance, but may depend in both on the association of carbonaceous organ- isms, whether vegetable or animal. Again, the liuguliferous sandstone of the Acadian group is a material which, by metamorphism, might readily afford a pyrox- enite with layers of apatite like those which occur in the Lauren- tian. The probability of the animal origin of the Laurentian apatite is perhaps further strengthened by the prevalence of animals with phosphatic crusts and skeletons in the Primordial age, giving a presumption that in the still earlier Laurentian a similar prefer- ence for phosphatic matter may have existed, and, perhaps, may have extended to still lower forms of life, just as the appropriation in more modern times of phosphate of lime by the higher animals for their bones seems to have been accompanied by a dimutiou of its use in animals of lower grade. 170 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. The Laurentian apatite pretty constantly contains a small per- centage of calcium fluoride ; and this salt also occurs in bones, more especially in certain fossil bones. This may in both cases be a chemical accident ; but it supplies an additional coincidence* In the lowest portions of the Lower Laurentian no organic re- mains have yet been detected ; aud these beds are also poor in phosphates. The horizon of special prevalence of Eozoon is the Grenville band of limestone, which, according to Sir William Logan's sections, is about 11,500 feet above the fundamental gneiss. It appears, from recent observations of Mr. Veunor and Mr. W. T. Morris, that the bed holding the Burgess Eozoon is on the same horizon with the limestone of Grenville. The phos- phates are most abundant in the beds overlying this band. This gives a further presumption that the collection and separation of the apatite is due to some organic agency, and may indicate that animals having phosphatic skeletons first became abundant after the sea-bottom had been largely occupied by Eozoon. I would not attach too great value to the above considera- tions; but, taken together, and in connection with the occurrence of apatite in the Cambrian and Silurian, they seem to afford at least a probability that the separation of the Laurentian phosphate from the sea-water, and its accumulation in particular beds, may have been due to the agency of marine life. Positive proof of this can be obtained only "by the recognition of organic form and structure ; and for this we can scarcely hope, unless we should be so fortunate as to find some portion of the Lower Laurentian series in a less altered condition than that in which it occurs in the apatite districts of Canada. Should such structures be found, however, it is not improbable that they may belong to forms of life almost as much lower than the Linguloe and Trilobites of the Cambrian as these are inferior to the fishes and reptiles of the Me.-ozoic. — From the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. No. 3.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 171 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. PROCEEDINGS FOR THE SESSION 1875-76. MONTHLY MEETINGS. 1st Monthly Meeting, held October 25th, 1875. The Rec. -Secretary having read a letter in which the Messrs. Allan Bros, of Liverpool, undertook to convey to the Society a box of specimens presented by Lieut.-Col. Bulger, free of charge : It was moved by Prof. Darey, seconded by E. E. Shelton, and resolved : — " That the thanks of the Society be voted to the Messrs. Allan Bros, for their liberality in this matter." A number of donations to the Library and Museum were an- nounced and exhibited, and the thanks of the meeting were voted to each of the donors. Dr. B. J. Harrington then read an obituary notice of the late Sir W. E. Logan. This will be found on pages 31-46 of the present volume. Rev. Dr. De Sola, who occupied the chair in the absence of the President, having made some remarks on the great loss which the Society had sustained by the decease of one of its most eminent and oldest members : it was moved by Principal Dawson, seconded by G. L. Marler, and resolved unanimously: " That Dr. Harrington be requested to publish the obituary notice just read in the Proceedings of this Society in the Cana- dian Naturalist, as a testimony to the honour in which the Society, in common with all other ..friends of science in this country, holds the memory of Sir W. E. Logan, and that copies be sent in the name of the Society to his surviving relatives." Dr. P. P. Carpenter made a communication u On the life and labours of the late Dr. John Edward Gray, of the British Mu- seum, and of Prof. G. P. Deshayes, formerly of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris," after which the meeting closed. 2nd Monthly Meeting, held November 29th, 1875. After the transaction of the usual routine business, a discus- sion ensued on the question of the proposed union with the Fraser Institute ; and the previous correspondence on the sub- 172 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii, ject. and conditions suggested, having been read, the President, A. R. 0. Selwyn, F.R.S., &c, on behalf of the Committee ap- pointed to confer with the Governors of the Fraser Institute, asked authority from the Society to carry on the arrangements to completion, and to submit a definite proposal for vote of the Society thereon at its next meeting, on the basis of the recom- mendations now submitted. It was moved by the Rev. Canon Baldwin, seconded by G. L. Marler, and unanimously resolved : — " That in accordance with the constitution of this Society, the proposal now read for Union with the Fraser Institute, in so far as the collections and library of the Society are concerned, be submitted to the meeting to be held in January, for final vote thereon, ;,nd that notice be given by circular to each member of the Society of the business to be submitted. ,? " That in the meantime, the Committee be instructed to com- plete the necessary arrangements, as far as possible, with the Fr;.ser Institute, and also with the Royal Institution." Rev. R. W. Norman, M.A., was elected a resident member. In consequence of the unavoidable absence of the author, a paper by Mr. H. G. Vennor, of the Geological Survey, on the Galena and Plumbago Deposits of Eastern Ontario, was read by the Recording Secretary. The President subsequently remarked that it was unfortunate that Mr. Vennor was not able to be present, as on some points suggested by the paper just read, further information was de- sirable. A short discussion ensued, at the conclusion of which the meeting was adjourned. Special Meeting, called instead of the ordinary Monthly Meet- ing for January 31st, 1876. In accordance with a resolution to that effect, passed on the 29th of November last, the present meeting was called by a cir- cular mailed to each member, of which the following is a copy : Montreal, January 22, 18 76. Sip, — You are requested to attend a Special Meeting of the Natural History Society, to be held at its Rooms, on Monday evening. January 31st, at 8 o'clock precisely, instead of the ordinary monthly meeting. Your obedient servant, J. F. Whiteaves, Secretary. Business : Final consideration of the proposed connexion of the Society with the Fraser Institute. No. 3.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 173 A copy of the following Memoranda was also sent at the same time to each of the members : Memorandum of the Terms upon which it is proposed to transfer the Museum and Library of the Natural History Society to the custody oj the Fraser Institute. 1st. The Natural History Society agrees to transfer its Musi um and Library, also any movable eases, furniture or fittings, that it pos- sesses, permanently and without reserve, to the custody of the Fraser Institute. 2nd. The Natural History Society agrees to pay to the Governors of the- Fraser Institute, the net proceeds arising from the sale of their land and building after payment of the undermentioned liabilities : a §1000.00 Mortgage and any interest whieh may have accrued thereon. b $4000.00, the amount of the Somerville bequest. c $2000.00, the amount due to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, on account of the land now held by the Natural History Society. Memorandum of the Terms upon which the Governors of the Fraser Insti- tute agree to accept the custody of the Museum and Library of the Natural History Society. 1st. The Governors of the Fraser Institute agree to provide a suitable building for a Museum of Natural History, of not less capa- city than that which now contains the collections of the Society, together with such cases or fittings as are required and cannot be furnished by tbe Natural History Society. 2d. The Governors of the Fraser Institute agree to provide for the Society, free of expense, suitable lecture and committee rooms ; the former lor the delivery of free popular lectures, and for the annual and monthly meetings of the Society; the latter for its Se- cretary's office, and for its Council and Committee meetings. Also a room for the Curator of the Museum, and a work-room for a Taxidermist. The said rooms to be of not less capacity than those used for these purposes in the present building of the Society. 3d. The Governors of the Fraser Institute agree to provide for the safe-keeping of the collections, and for their proper and scientific arrangement by competent Curators and otherwise. The salaries of such officers to be paid by the Institute. 4th. The Original Museum and Library of the Natural History Socii ty, with such additions as may from time to time be made by the Society, shall be known and distinctly labelled as the Collection and Library of the Natural History Society of Montreal. The books many be incorporated with the general library of the Institute, but are to be stamped with the name of the Society. 5th. The Museum shall at all times be open to the inspection of the Council of the Natural History Society, or of such other officer or officers as the Society may appoint. 6th. The Council of the Society shall have power to make recom- mendations to the Governors of the Institute as to the safe keeping and improvement of the Museum, and shall be consulted in any con. emplated changes of its arrangement or management. 174 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. 7th. The Society shall have power to add to its Museum and Lib- rary, from time to time, such specimens and books as it may acquire, and the books of the Natural History Society shall have the same care as those of the Fraser Institute. 8th. The Museum and Library shall be opened to Members of the Society and their friends, on terms not less liberal than those pro- vided for by the present rules of the Natural History Society. 9th. All current expenses connected with the maintenance of the accommodation specified in clauses 1 and 2, mch as furniture, re- pairs, city assessments, fuel, lighting, cleaning and insurance, are to be paid by the Fraser Institute. Note. — The dimensions of the present Museum of the Society are 87 x 42J feet, with a gallery entirely round the room, two sides 5 ft. 8 in. wide ; one side 17 ft. 4 in., and one do. 16 ft. 8 in. wide, and there is also available space in two halls, and on the sides of the staircase. The Lecture room is 42^ feet x 43 feet, and folding doors permit the Library, 28 x 16 feet, to be thrown in. The President and Council of the Natural History Society, would suggest in the event of the proposed transfer being mutually agreed upon, that the Governors of the Institute should secure the services of J. F. Whiteaves, Esq., the present Scientific Curator of the Natural History Society, as it would, in their opinion, be impossible to find any one so well fitted by local experience and otherwise to under- take the dut}r of the re-arrangement and classification of the collec- tions in the new Museum ; and also its subsequent superintendence. There were twenty-two members present. On motion of Principal Dawson, Rev. Dr. De Sola was re- quested to take the chair. The presiding officer, after briefly stating the nature of the business which the meeting was specially called to consider, re- gretted the absence of the President, who had taken an active part in the negotiations with the Governors of the Fraser Insti- tute, and called upon the Recording Secretary to read the minutes of the last monthly, and of the last two Council meet- ings, also a copy of the " Memoranda " printed above. On behalf of the Committee appointed to confer with the Governors of the Fraser Institute, Principal Dawson gave a verbal report of the action taken so far, and stated the terms of the agreement arrived at between the Governors of the Royal Institution and the Natural History Society, in the event of the sale of the buildings and ground at present occupied by the latter corporation. The following resolutions (which were subsequently amended by consent of the mover and seconder, so as to include some additions, suggested later on in the evening), were moved by G. L. Marler, seconded by Prof. Darey : No. 3.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 175 " That the report now presented be adopted as amended, and the terms therein stated for union with the Fraser Institute, be, and hereby are, accepted by this Society, and that the Council be, and hereby is. empowered to prepare and execute the neces- sary agreements and deeds so soon as the building of the Fraser Institute shall be erected, and the Trustees thereof be in a posi- tion to carry out the stipulations entered into by them. The Council shall have the drafts of the said agreements and deeds prepared with legal advice, and shall submit them to the Society before signature." "Farther, that the said deeds and agreements shall contain provision for the disposal of the collections and library, in event of either the Fraser Institute or Natural History Society ceasing to exist as at present constituted, or failing to fulfil its obliga- tions." The " Memoranda" were then discussed, paragraph by para- graph, and upon a motion to that effect being made, it was re- solved unanimously : " That the words — for use as a free Museum and Library — be added to the first paragraph of the first Memorandum." It was moved by Dr. P. P. Carpenter, seconded by C. Robb : " That the words — ' permanently and without reserve ' — be struck out of the same paragraph." The motion was put to the meeting, and was declared by the Chairman to be lost. Dr. P. P. Carpenter moved, seconded by G. L. Marler : " That the following qualification be added to paragraph 3 of the second ' Memorandum,' after the word Iustitute — ' But no appointment of Chief Curator shall be made without ratification by the Society.' " This resolution was unanimously adopted. The main motion was then submitted to the meeting, and was carried nemine contradiscente. 4th Monthly Meeting, held February 28th, 1876. Messrs. Armand Thielens (Director of Posts, Tirlemont, Bel- gium), Professor Edouard Morren (University of Liege, Belgium), Andre Devos (Conservator of Botany, University of Liege, Belgium), and Robert Middleton. of Victoria, Vancouver Island, were elected corresponding members. 176 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii . Mr. J. W. Spencer then read a paper " on the Nipigon or Copper-bearing Rocks of Lake Superior, with notes on Copper Mining in that region," which is printed on pages 55-81 of the present volume. A discussion took place after the reading of the paper, in which Messrs. A. R. C. Selwyn, Principal Dawson, Prof. R. Bell, and C. Robb took part. The points upon which most of the speak- ers seemed to agree were : 1st, that lithological and stratigraphi- cal differences exist between the beds on the north and south shores of the Lake, and that a satisfactory correlation of the deposits at these two localities has not yet been established ; and, secondly, that the exact geological horizon of the copper- bearing series is still uncertain. Principal Dawson called the attention of the members present to an interesting collection of ferns and other fossil plants which had been recently obtained by Mr. Albert J. Hill from Cossett's Pit, near Sydney, Cape Breton, some of which were exhibited. He said they were of interest as showing the occurrence of forms hitherto known only in the middle and upper coal formations in beds assigned, on stratigraphical evidence, to the upper part of the Millstone-Grit. They were also of interest from the presence of at least four species of ferns showing fructification, which would shortly be described. They were further of interest as occuring in the same beds with the remains of a fossil larva of a dragon-fly, which will be described by Mr. Scudder in the next number of the Canadian Naturalist, and which is the first insect of that family found in the Carboniferous Rocks. 5th Monthly Meeting, held March 27th, 1876. A paper by Mr. G. M. Dawson, entitled " The Grasshopper visitation of 1874 in Manitoba and the North West Territories," was read by Principal Dawson. After some remarks on this subject by A. R. C. Selwyn, Prof. R. Bell, E. L. Marler, C. Robb, and Principal Dawson, the pro- ceedings terminated by a vote of thanks to the author of the paper of the evening. 6th Monthly Meeting, held April 30th, 1876. Mr E. J. Major was elected a member of the Society. A paper by Lieut. Col. Bulger, entitled "A visit to Port Blair and Mount Harriet, Auelaman Islands," was read by the Rec. Secretary and an interesting collection of shells from that No. 3.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 177 locality (presented by Lieut. Col. Bulger) was exhibited. The paper may be found at pages 95-103 of the last number of thi8 Journal. A letter from Lieut. Col. Bulger was also read in which it was endeavoured to interest the members in the taking of phenologi- cal observations, and the scope of a pamphlet forwarded by Mr. Bulger, giving instructions for the taking of the same, was ex- plained by the Bee. Secretary. A committee was appointed, to consist of Dr. John Bell, J. B. Goode, F. B. Caulfield and the Bee. Secretary, with power to add to their number, to endeavour to draw up a series of in- structions for the use of phenological observers in the Dominion. SOMMERVILLE LECTURES. The following is a list of the titles of the lectures of this course, with the dates at which they were delivered, and the names of the lecturers. 1. Jan. 20th, 1870. Insectivorous Plants. By Principal Dawson LL.D., F.B.S. A bit of life on the Ocean. By W. G. Beers, L.D.S. Some facts in Psychology. By Dr. G. A. Baynes. ■ Selections from the study of Vegetable Life. By Prof. J. B. McConnell, M.D. Animal Parasites and their relation to Public Health. By Prof. W.Osler,M.D. 6. Feb. 24th, " The climatology and resources of our North West. By Prof. J. Macoun, of Albert College, Belleville. 7. March 2nd, " Spiritualism, as viewed in the light of the Baconian Philosophy. By Bev. J. T. Stevenson, L.L.B. ANNUAL .MEETING. The Annual Meeting was held on the 18th of^Iay, 1876, Mr. Charles Bobb presiding. Alter the minutes of the last Annual Meeting had been read, the liec. Secretary read a letter from the President, A. R. C. Selwyn, F.B.S. (who was absent in Philadelphia), expressing his regret at not being able to be present, and distinctly declining 2. Jan. 27th, 3. Feb. 3rd, 4. Feb. 10th, 5. Feb. 17th, 178 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viH. re-nomination on the ground that he found it impossible to at- tend properly to the duties of the office. The following report of the Chairman of Council was read by Mr. G. L. Marler. REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN OF COUNCIL. Your Council in presenting its annual Report deeply regret to announce the loss of four life members, who were distinguished alike for their long connection with the Society and for the deep interest they took in its proceedings. In mentioning the name of Sir William E. Logan, there is little need for me to do more than allude to his geological researches : the result of his life- long labours are known to you all, and have secured for him a high place in the annals of Canadian science. Sir G. Duncan Gibb, whose recent loss we have also to deplore, although not lately a resident in Canada, was once a very active member of this Society, and was at one time the Scientific Cur- ator of its museum. He was fond of the study of Natural His- tory, and contributed the following papers to the Society's Journal : 1. A Pedestrian Tour from Brighton to Hastings. (Canadian Naturalist, 1st series, vol. 2. page 382.) 2. On the existence of a Cave in the Trenton Limestone at the Cote St. Michel, on the Island of Montreal. {Canadian Naturalist, 1st series, vol. 3, page 192.) 3. The Natural History of the Sanguinaria Canadensis, or Canada Blood Root. (Canadian Naturalist, 2nd series, vol. 2, page 432.) The late John Swanston, of the Hudson's Bay Co., was also a warm friend and strong supporter of the Society, to whose museum he made many valuable contributions. George H. Frothingham, another life member, has been removed from among our midst ; as has also Mr. Walter McOuat, with whose reports, as a member of the staff of the Geological Survey, many here will be familiar. While death has thus severely visited the Society, the increase to its ranks has been very small, only two new members having been added during the session ; though, on the other hand, in spite of the prevailing commercial depression, fewer resignations than usual have been received. No. 3.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 179 The arrangements for the transfer of the museum and library of the Society to the custody of the Fraser Institute, have, as you are aware, been completed as far as possible, and the terms of union agreed upon. Your Council are of opinion that by the proposed transfer the Society will be relieved of much pecuniary responsibility, and that in future it will be able to devote its funds more exclusively to such objects as the improvement of the library and museum, as well as to that of the " Canadian Naturalist." The regular monthly meetings have been held during the past session, to the number of six, and were very fairly attended. The titles of the papers read will be found in their proper place in the Proceedings of the Society. Your Council regret to report that the Government has seen fit to discontinue deep-sea dredging operations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but your Council hope that the discontinuance will be only temporary, and that the Government may be again induced to resume this most interesting and important work. The lecture room has been rented during the year, and the sum of 8347.00 has thus been added to the funds of the Society. The Sommerville Course of free public Lectures have been delivered as usual, and that they have been fully appreciated is shewn by the large audiences by which they were attended. The subjects of the lectures, the date at which they were de- livered, and the names of the lecturers, will be found in the Proceedings. The customary grant of $750 has been duly received from the Provincial Parliament, but an application for an increase of the amount was unsuccessful. At the suggestion of Lieut.-Col. Bulger a Committee has re- cently been appointed to issue directions for the use of pheno- logical observers, and your Council would urge upon its succes- sors the desirability of taking prompt action in this matter. Arrangements have just been completed for the whitewashing and re-tinting of a large portion of your building. The number of persons visiting the museum has been about equal to the average of former years. Owing to the backward state of the season, it was thought desirable to postpone the holding of a field meeting on the Queen's birth-day. 180 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. The report of the Scientific Curator and Rec. -Secretary was then read as follows : REPORT OF THE SCIENTIFIC CURATOR. A large part of the time during the past session has been de- voted to the completion, as far as possible, of the re-classification of the Society's collection of Canadian insects. Since the cabinet was first arranged, in 1865, numbers of new specimens have been added, and these were, from time to time, pinned into any convenient place, until the whole should be re-arranged. Cata- logues of the coleoptera of the island of Montreal have been pub- lished by Mr. D'Urban and the late Mr. A. S. Ritchie, in the Canadian Naturalist. These collectively make up a list of about 300 species. Mr. Ritchie's collection, which was speci- ally valuable as having been named by Drs. Horn and Leconte, is now in the possession of the London branch of the Entomological Society of Canada. The first step taken towards an entire re- arrangement of the Society's rather extensive collection of Cana- dian beetles was to compile a MSS. catalogue, based on the lists referred to above, of the species so far known to inhabit the island of Montreal. During the past few years Mr. Caulfield, Mr. Passmore, and myself, have given a good deal of spare time (mostly Saturday afternoons in summer), to the collection of local coleoptera. We have been able to add about 80 identified species to the lists already published, while a number of speci- mens remain yet to be named. After completing this MSS. list, 4 drawers in the cabinet were selected and spaces, with a printed label to each, were allotted for every species known to inhabit the Island. Efforts have been made to fill these spaces with new and high pinned specimens, and the result has been that 193 species were obtained. The important collection recently presented by Mr. Billings, has been removed from the collecting boxes in which it was originally contained, and the insects pinned into the cabinet. The remainder of the collection consists of such specimens as are not in either of the two previously men- tioned series. This part of the cabinet, which was previously in a state of chaotic confusion, is now in very fair order, all dupli- cates having been rejected, also specimens without either locality or name. The Coleoptera now fill 7 drawers, in three separate series, as follows : No. 3.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 181 1. Beetles from the Island of Montreal exclusively, 193 species. 2. Mr. Billings' collection .... 444 " 3. Specimens mostly from the Province of Ontario, 198 " In all - 835 " While engaged in endeavouring to collect fresh specimens of local beetles for the cabinet, other orders have not been neglected, and fair series of hymenoptera, diptera, and orthoptera have been obtained. The proper setting of large numbers of insects, and their correct determination, has of course taken up considerable time. During Mr. Selwyn's explorations in the vicinity of the Peace River, attention was given to collecting the insects of that region. A large series of coleoptera were brought from that part of the world, and were kindly presented to the Society by Mr. Selwyn. The whole of these have been sent to Dr. Leconte, of Phila- delphia, who has kindly promised to report upon them. When they are returned they will form a very valuable and indeed unique feature in our cabinet. Dr. Leconte moreover promises to examine and determine all our local coleoptera which remain unnamed, particularly the Curculionidce, of which little or nothing is known at present. The whole of the Canadian Lepidoptera have also been re-arranged, and the collection now fills 6 drawers. Many of our local species are still unrepresented, and entomologists are respectfully reminded of the many vacan- cies to be met with in this part of our cabinet. As a great difference of opinion unhappily exists as to what is the proper nomenclature in this group, the old names have been provision- ally retained. Dredging operations have been carried on during the past summer in the Gulf of Georgia by Mr. Richardson. The dredg- ings extended from outside Victoria-Harbour to within a short distance of Race Islands lighthouse and thence to the Constance bank, the average depth being from 25 to 50 fathoms. A few successful casts were also made in Baynes Sound, also between Texada and Harwood Islands. The specimens obtained in this way are of unusual interest ; there is one small sponge ; six Echinoderms ; thirteen species of Polyzoa, many of which are new to science; fifty-four species of Mollusca, and four Crus- tacea. Three of the shells are novelties, two of which have recently been described by Mr. Dall from Alaska, which was the 182 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. Vlii. only previously known locality for them, while ten are new to the fauna of the Gulf. Mr. Richardson also collected thirty-one species of marine shells in the neighbourhood of Victoria, and of these three are new to the district. The whole of the specimens collected by Mr. Richardson have been presented to the Society by its worthy President, to whom the Society is already so largely indebted. Thanks to his liberality, the Society now pos- sesses quite a rich collection of the products of the Pacific coasts of the Dominion. It has been quite a labour of love to study these interesting and often unique specimens : the whole of the Mollusca, eighty-five species in all, have been carefully deter- mined, as have also most of the Echinodermata. We have also received during the past session a small but beautifully prepared series of the Crustacea, marine algae, &c, of Vancouver Island, prepared by Mr. R. Middleton of Victoria. The Crustacea have been sent to Mr. S. J. Smith of Yale College for identification, and have been since returned. There are six species, most of which are rare in collections, while one is entirely new. The Hydroids were sent to Prof. Verrill, who in returning them, reports that there are seven species, all referable to well-known Californian types. Mr. W. H. Dall, who has spent many years in exploring the marine zoology, &c, of Alaska and the Arctic fauna of the Pacific, paid Montreal a visit last August, and spent several days in examining and making notes on the shells from the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the Society's collection. Un- fortunately, Mr. Richardson's shells had not been received when Mr. Dall was here, but a list of the whole of them was forwarded to him at Washington, and many of the most critical of the shells themselves. Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, who superintended one of the dredging cruises of the Porcupine, accompanied the British Arctic expedition as far as Greenland, in H. M. S. Valorous. An accident occurred to the vessel, which somewhat interfered with dredging operations ; still Dr. Jeffreys' cruise was not altogether unsuccessful, and he is now engaged in a study of the specimens obtained. He has expressed a wish to see several of the shells obtained in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on recent dredging expeditions, and they have accordingly been sent to him ; these have also been since returned. The Society has now had the advantage of having all its St. Lawrence shells criti- cally compared with Arctic Atlantic forms by the ablest living authority on the mollusca of the north of Europe, and as com- plete a set of duplicates as could be spared were forwarded to No. 3.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 183 Mr. Dall for comparison with nearly related forms from the Arctic waters of the North Pacific, in his cabinet. Some progress has been made in the determination of such species of marine animals (obtained during three dredging ex- peditions to the Gulf) as had not been previously studied. My own time has been given to the sponges and polyzoa, also to a revision of the mollusca. About fourteen species have been added to the known fauna of that region. Several critical Crus- tacea and echinoderms, dredged by Principal Dawson at Metis last summer, have been sent to Profs. Smith and Verrill, who have kindly reported thereon. The whole of the echinodermata from the Gulf in the collections of Principal Dawson and of the Society are now determined. Lieut.-Col. Bulger, whose donations to the Society have been so numerous and valuable, has added to his favours by presenting to the Society a tine collection of the shells of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. It contains 137 species, in excel- lent order, most of which have been mounted on tablets, and 87 have been named. In last year's report it was stated that the whole of my own private collection of fossils and shells had been imported from England. They fill four large packing cases, and had not been opened for fourteen yenrs. It was found that many of the most delicate shells had been attacked by mildew, and some had been so much injured as to be worthless. An attempt has beeu made to remedy this state of things, but my time has beeu so much occu- pied with other work that only two of the cases have been opened. At a late meeting of the Library Committee, I was requested to examine into and report upon the present condition of the library. All the American exchanges that are unbound have accordingly been tied up in volumes, and the numbers of the missing parts, or the word complete, as the case may be, written on each set. The whole of the Society's collection of pamphlets has been gone through with the view of selecting sets for binding. The ordinary secretarial duties, such as the calling of meetings, the posting of the minutes, and other routine work, has been much the same as in past years, but the purely scientific corres- pondence entailed by the constant addition of new specimens, is very largely on the increase. The report of the Treasurer was next read by Mr. E. E. Shelton. This will be found on the next page. Vol. VIII. L No. 3. 184 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. kO c c «c o c OS — , o ,_, t^ o o t— CO CO y* 6# oo K oo 2 <"< ^ pq pq •* " C C ffl N CO Ti C-T i- 00 O 31 O r-D 00 ~ O — J O iO -r X CO CM l- t- 00 i— I C; I CM -r M r-l i — ( . — i en — 1 II* B O Tj -* v: — © -g "£ ,£; -g 43 i' ^ ^* is ^ i ■e " S "2 °* g "fe a £ 3 o o £ s ffl w *• O d .§ 5=11 !> ^> = & a S 5 £ .a ■43 o ~ 3 No. 3.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 185 On motion of Dr. J. Baker Edwards, seconded by Pro!'. Darey it was resolved : " That the reports now read be adopted and printed in the Naturalist, and that it be a suggestion to the new Council to take such measures as may seem feasible to bring under the notice of the public the importance of the operations of this Society and its claims to a more extended and liberal support from the community." The election of officers was then proceeded with, and it was moved by G. L. Marler, secouded by E.E. Shelton, and resolved: " That the by-law providing for the election of every officer by ballot, be suspended, and that Principal Dawson be elected President by acclamation." Mr. E. E. Shelton was also re-elected as Treasurer, Prof. Darey as Corresponding Secretary, and Mr. J. F. Whiteaves as Scientific Curator and Recording Secretary, in the same way, the form of balloting being dispensed with in each case, by a special resolution to that effect. .Messrs. J. B. Goode and Prof. R. Bell having been appointed scrutineers, the following officers were elected by ballot in the usual way : Vice-Presidents— A. R, C. Selwyu, F.R.S., F.G.S. ; Rev. A. De Sola, LL.D. ; J. Baker Edwards, Ph.D., D.C.L.; C. Robb ; His Lordship the Metropolitan ; G. L. Marler ; and E. Billings. Council,— Prof. R. Bell, Dr. B. J. Harrington, R. W. Mc- Lachlan, Rev. Canon Baldwin, J. H. Joseph, J. B. Goode, Dr. W. Osier, N. Mercer, and M. H. Brisette. It was moved by Dr. J. Baker Edwards, seconded by Prof. Darey, and resolved unanimously: ^ "That the thanks of the Society be voted to Dr. Harrington for his valuable services in editiug the Naturalist." It was also moved by G. L. Marler, seconded by E. E. Shelton, and resolved : "That the Library and Membership Committee of last year be re-elected." On motion of Prof. Bell, seconded by J. B. Goode, a vote of thanks was passed to the officers of the past session. 186 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. Yin. DONATIONS TO MUSEUM AND LIBRARY— SESSION 1875-7G. From A. H. Foord, F.Cf.S. Lieut.-Col. Bulger, F.R.G.S., L.S., Z.S.. Dr. W. E. Scott, Mr. James Leslie. A. Lewis, Esq. W. McLennan, Esq. J. B. Goode, Esq. Dr. Godfrey. James Gardner, Esq. The Geological Surrey, per A. R. ('. Sclwvn. F.R.S., &c. Robert Middleton, Esq. Victoria, Vancouver Island. N. P. Leach, Esq. From The Author. The Author. Trustees of the British Museum. The Dominion Govern- ment. The Author. The Cobden Club. The Belfast Naturalists Field Club. Executors of the late Henry Christy, Esq. TO THE MUSEUM. Two species of Sponges, 7 of Polyzoa, an isopod crustacean (QSga psora, Linn) and some marine shells, from Cape Cove, and Perce, Gaspe. 137 species of shells, mostly marine, from the neighbourhood of Port Blair, Anda- man Islands. Skin of Sonnerat's Jungle fowl. Male. Gall us Sonneratii. Specimen of the Sulphur Crested Coakatoo. Water snake, Nerodia sipedon. Fine inlaid Indian stone pipe- bowl from the North-West. Indian stone pipe and 12 species of insects from Savannah. Large dried frond of P^lyslichum lonchifis, from Cape Bon Ami, Gaspe. Long-tailed Duck, Harelda glacialis. Plexaura crassa, and a large Asterias, both from Bermuda. 85 species of marine shells, 6 do. of echino- dermata, 5 do. of Crustacea, and 13 do. of polyzoa, also axis of a large Gorgonia, all from the Gulf of Georgia. A fine series of mounted sea-weeds, also 7 species of hydroids, 4 of polyzoa, floats of Portuguese man-of-war. and 6 species of Crustacea, all from the neighbourhood of Victoria, V. I. The "Black Longe" of Lake Memphrema- gog, Salmo con lints Dekav, from Magog, P.O. TO THE LIBRARY. Report on the Geology and Resources of the Region in the vicinity of tin: Forty- ninth Parallel, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains By G. M. Dawson, F.G S., &c. Revision of the North American Porifera. With remarks upon foreign species. Part 1. By Alpheus Hyatt. Catalogue ofCyclostomatous Polyzoa in the British Museum. By G. Busk. Catalogue of Birds. Volume 2. Statutes of Canada, 38th Victoria, 1875. A^ol. 2. (In French.) Anuuaire de. Ville Marie, origine, utilite et progres des Institutions Catholiques de Montreal. Supplement a 1' edition de 1864. Par L. A. H. Latour, M.A., &c. Free Trade and the European Treaties of Commerce. Being a report of Proceed- ings at the dinner of the Cobden Club, July 17th. 1875. Guide to Belfast and the adjacent Coun- ties. Reliquioe Aquitanicoe. Parts 11 to the end, inclusive. THE CANADIAN NATURALIST AND (guwtwU) founxal tit $mm. ON THE PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE REGION OF THE GREAT LAKES. By E. W. Claypole, B.A., B. Sc. (London), Antioch College, Ohio. The alliance of Geology with Physical Geography is not of long standing. Each science had separately done good work before by combining their forces they attempted yet greater undertakings. When Geology discovered and published the fact that the present outlines of the earth's surface had not al- ways existed Physical Geography demanded the reproduction of the outlines passed away. The sister sciences thereupon joined hands, and set themselves to the task of reconstructing what we may call Extinct Geography. Long and arduous as it is, their efforts have already been crowned with no small measure of success — a success the greater, as might be expected, in pro- portion as the date is more recent. Quaternary maps are more full and correct than Tertiary, and Tertiary than Secondary ; while the palaeozoic coast-survey has hardly yet begun. The following attempt to reconstruct the early Quaternary Geography of the great American Lake District is offered as a small contribution to this department of science. The region is one of the most interesting upon the continent, both to the geo- logist and the physical geographer. Speculations have been made on the origin of these great inland sheets of water, but the Vol. VIII. m No. 4. 188 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Tol. viii. writer has not met with any connected or detailed investigation into the physical cause of the basins in which they lie, and which determine their existence. Until lately no proposition at all tenable had been promulgated ; but since Professor A. Ramsay's strong advocacy of a glacial origin for the basins of certain Euro- pean lakes, there seems to have been a tacit extension of this theory, so that according to some it explains the formation of almost all lakes in the North Temperate Zone, and were it not for the existence of several great inland seas in Equatorial Africa, it would, we think, be accepted by not a few as the sole and sufficient cause of all lake basins on the surface of the globe. The merits of this theory we do not propose now to examine. Our purpose is merely to test its application to the case of the great North American lakes. The publications of the Geologi- cal Survey of Ohio have shown that opinion is yet divided upon this point. Dr. Newberry, its director, is apparently himself in doubt, as we infer from expressions in different parts of the work. For instance, we read in the volume for 18G9, p. 28 : " Lake Erie in the glacial era was not a lake but an excavated valley into which the streams of Northern Ohio flowed." But in the volume for 1873, Dr. Newberry says: "It is doubtless known to some who may be readers of this volume, but probably is realized by few, that the basin of Lake Erie in all its length and breadth — as well as the smaller and yet deeper one of Lake Ontario, and the broader and far deeper ones of Lakes Michigan and Huron — has been excavated by mechanical force from the solid rock. . . . They are plainly basins of excavation dug out of sheets of rock which were con- tinuous over all the area they occupy. . . . Any one who will stand on the cliffs which overlook the lake in North Eastern Ohio, 750 feet above the water, and will look over the sea-like expanse toward the Canadian shore, will get some realizing sense of the vastness of the mechanical effect which has been produced here. . . . The agents were unquestionably the same that have produced all the great monuments of erosion seen elsewhere — water and ice; and of the two that which was by far the most potent and that which alone could excavate broad boat-like basins such as these was Ice." p. 49. Again we read in the volume for 1874, p. 77 : " Previously to the glacial period the elevation of this portion of the continent was considerably greater than now, and it was No. 4.] CLAYPOLE — PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY. 189 drained by a river system which flowed at a much lower level than at present. At that time our chain of Lakes — Huron Erie, and Ontario — apparently formed portions of the valley of a river which subsequently became the St. Lawrence, but which then flowed between the Adirondacks and the Appalachians in the line of the deeply buried channel of the Mohawk, passing through the trough of the Hudson. . . . Lake Michigan was apparently then a part of a river course which drained Lake Superior and emptied itself into the Mississippi." It is somewhat aiflicult to reconcile this with the next para- graph, which is as follows : " With the approach of the cold period, local glaciers formed on the Laurentian mountains, and as they increased in size gradu- ally crept down, and began to excavate the plateau which bor- dered them on the west and south. The excavation of our lake basins was begun and perhaps in large part effected in this epoch. The extent of the erosion produced in the epoch under consideration will be best appreciated by one who will stand on the cut edges of the great series of rocks exposed on the southern slopes of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and in imagination fill the vast vacuity which separates him from the base of the Lau- rentian hills." On a previous page (72) we read the following : " All our great lakes are probably very ancient," and "their formation may have begun during the coal measure epoch." And on p. 74 : " There can be no doubt that the basin of each of the great lakes has been produced by a local glacier. . . Our lake basins must have been formed before or after the continental glacier, or both before and after." And once more we find in the volume for 1873, p. 172, when speaking of the buried river channels, of which mention will be made presently, Dr. Newberry says : " They were formed at a time when Lake Erie did not exist as a lake but was represented by a river flowing through some portion of the basin it occupies, and receiving the Cuyahoga, Rocky River, the Chagrin, Grand River, &c, as tributaries, at a level 200 feet below the present mouths of these streams. This was anterior to the first epoch of the drift period." The view expressed in the last extract appears to be the only one now tenable, and the object of this paper is to support and to extend it to other parts of the region of the great lakes. 190 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viil No fact has been more clearly brought to light during the Geological Surveys of New York and Ohio than that the present rivers are not flowing, in all cases, where they flowed during the Tertiary age. When the ice advanced southward it obliterated the rivers then existing, and on retiring left their channels filled with stones and clay. These beds of drift, as they are called, remained after the ice had disappeared, and when the rivers began again to flow, they failed, in many cases, to find their ancient beds. These ancient channels remained filled with clay stones and sand, and have only been discovered by borings and cuttings made generally for economical purposes. A good in- stance of this will be found in the volume of tha Geological Sur- vey of Ohio for 1873. Prof. Orton writes in his account of Clarke County — p. 460 : "An old valley of Mad River is disclosed in the heavy cut of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway, a few miles west of Springfield. The tongue of land that occupies a bend in the river has an elevation of 100 to 125 feet above the level of the stream, and gives no hint in its contour of any break in the rocky floor underlying it. The Sandusky railroad, which was first in construction, cuts across the tongue. A considerable portion of this cut is wrought in solid rock, the maximum depth of the stone cutting being 18 feet. With these facts before them, the Atlantic and Great Western Company, whose line crosses the river half a mile higher and on a grade of ten feet below the first road, expected also to find rock, and made ar- rangements for tunnelling the hill. The road that they selected however, chanced to be a buried channel of the river, which allowed an open cut of 65 feet through clay and sand. Sound- ings that have since been made from the track to the level of the river, show drift material throughout the whole extent." In the north of the State, near Cleveland, where the Cuyahoga River enters the lake, is another of these buried channels. Borings have revealed the fact that the Cuyahoga now flows over a bed of clay and sand, 220 feet in depth, filling an older channel in the same or nearly the same place, whose rocky bot- tom lies 210 feet below the level of the lake. Ten miles west of Cleveland the Rocky River also enters the lake by a deep channel with precipitous walls. But two miles to the west is found its ancient channel filled like that of the Cuyahoga with clay, the Erie clay — " which here as at Cleveland extends far below the lake level." 1873, p. 172. No. 4.] CLAYPOLE — PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY. 191 Now a river cannot excavate its bed below the bottom of the valley or lake into which it flows, and as Lake Erie does not much exceed 200 feet in depth, it follows of necessity that the bottom of the channel of the Cuyahoga and the bottom of the lake are nearly on the same level. It is impossible therefore to doubt that at the time when this older Cuyahoga flowed along its now buried channel the Erie valley had been excavated to its full depth, and that whatever was the agent we cannot attribute the erosion to the ice ol the glacial era, since both valley and river equally belong to pre-glacial times. Another argument may also be founded on the facts above given concerning the Cuyahoga. It is frequently affirmed that enormous erosion occurred over the face of the country during the ice age, and that, even if we grant the existence of an exca- vation where Lake Erie now lies, yet that excavation must have been deepened aud widened under the action of the continental ice sheet. But no one will maintain that the ice deepened the gorge of the Cuyahoga from Cleveland to Boston, fifteen miles back from the lake, and it is equally impossible to maintain that the Erie basin which lies at nearly the same level can have been much deepened during the glacial era. The higher parts of the country may have been somewhat worn down, and the basin of the lake slightly eroded, but there is absolutely no evidence proving any perceptible change in the outline and depth of the Erie valley since early Quaternary days. Yet a third inference may be drawn from the relative condi- tions of the Cuyahoga and the Erie Valley at the time now under consideration. There is no reason to believe that the river at Cleveland was much larger than now while it is abso- lutely certain that it flowed at least 200 feet below its present level, or nearly on the bottom of the present lake. We may hence safely conclude that the lake had no existence, and that the bed of3 the Cuyahoga continued into the wide open vale of Erie without meeting any such inland sea as that into which it now falls, and emptied itself into some larger stream then flowing eastward through the valley. The same was also in all probability true of the Rocky River, and of other streams now tributary to the lake. For example : " Borings at Toledo show that the old bed of the Maumee is at least 140 feet below its present surface level." Geological Sur- vey of Ohio, 1874, p. 15. The instances given are however sufficient for our purpose, and we pass on. 192 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. The establishment of this conclusion is however only the first step. If it is proved that the Erie valley existed not as a lake but as a valley at the time in question, other changes must follow. We quote again from the Survey of Ohio : " An old excavated and now filled channel connects the basins of Lake Huron and Lake Erie. At Detroit the rock surface is 130 feet below the city. In the oil regions of Enniskillen and Bothwell, on the opposite side of Detroit river, from 50 to 200 feet of clay overlie the rock where the land surface is but little above the level of Lake Huron. The greatest depth of this channel is unknown." The existence of this old and buried chanel at Detroit is an- other link in the chain. It enables us to extend our inferences from the valley of Erie to the basin of Lake Huron. It is evi- dent that if the former in pre-glacial times contained no lake, and was connected with the latter by this channel 200 feet in depth, now filled with drift, the latter must also have been an open valley, and not, as now, the bed of an inland sea. The water collected upon its slopes must have flowed down to the mid-channel and thence through the deep gorge at Detroit into the Erie valley, forming the river previously mentioned.* Turning now to the other end of Lake Erie, let us consider the physical condition of the Ontarian valley at the time in question. The greatest depth of Lake Ontario is 450 feet, with a surface level of 235 feet above the sea. Between the two lakes lie, as is well known, the falls of Niagara, which with the rapids below and above them, cause a descent ot 330 feet. We have shown above that the valley of Erie cannot have been in early Quaternary times the bed of a lake, and it is therefore necessary to find some means of accounting for the escape of the * It may be well in this connection to mention that the often expressed conception of these lakes as profound depressions is quite incorrect. They are excavations insignificant in depth when we consider their area. Lake Erie, with an average breadth of about 40 miles and a depth of 200 feet, lies on a bed whose sides slope only 10 feet in a mile. To the eye such a slope would appear an absolute level, and when we consider that a railway incline sometimes rises as much as 80 feet in a mile, the flatness of this valley to the eye will bej more apparent. A similar calculation applied to Lake Huron shows that its bed slopes on an average not more than 16 feet in the mile, and like results mav be obtained for all the others in the chain No. 4. J CLAYPOLE — PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY. 193 waters. In the present state of our knowledge of the geology of the region it is impossible to point out the exact position of this channel, but the following extract will indicate its probable situation. After citing and discussing numerous instances of buried river-channels of pre-glacial age in different States, and relying on his experience and his knowledge of the geology of the country, Dr. Newberry says : " I ventured to predict to General Warren that an old filled up channel would be found passing round the Mississippi rapids, and his examinations have confirmed the prophecy. I will ven- ture still farther, and predict the discovery of buried channels of communication between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, probably somewhere near and east of the Grand Sable, at least between the pictured rocks and St. Mary's river, between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario through Canada, between Lake Ontario and the Hudson by the valley of the Mohawk, and between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi somewhere along the line I have indicated before." Geology of Ohio, 1874, p. 19. Of these the first, the channel between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan had already been announced in 1871 by Mr. N H. Winchell, then a member of the Michigan Geological Survey, in the American Journal of Science and Arts for July of that year. This paper is noticed by Dr. Newberry in the volume just quoted, page 13, The existence of a buried channel therefore between Lakes Erie and Ontario, though not actually proved by boring as in the former case, yet rests on evidence not to be estimated lightly. The opinion of one so well acquainted with the country as Dr. Newberry, deserves great confidence, and as in other cases, so here, it is likely that further investigation will reveal the buried channel somewhere near the line of the "Welland Canal.* The condition of the Ontarian valley at the time in question * It would be conducive to the interest of science, and might at the same time repay the expenditure of the public money if the Go- vernment of the Dominion would set on foot a systematic examina- tion of the region before completing the section of the new Welland Canal that passes through it. If such a buried channel could be found through the great Upper Silurian escarpment which forms so striking a feature in the landscape between St. Catharines and Nia- gara and the excavation carried through it, the cost would certainly be less than that of a rock cutting. 194 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. now claims consideration. In the passage above quoted from the Geology of Ohio, mention is made of the existence of a buried channel between Lake Ontario and the Hudson River through, the valley of the Mohawk. Many years ago, in the course of the Geological Survey of New York, the facts were discovered ou which this opinion is based. They prove the existence of a deep drift-filled and therefore pre-glacial channel near Syracuse, in the course of which channel lies Lake Onondaga. " Onondaga Lake is the remains of an ancient and deep exca- vation in the Onondaga salt group, of which Onondaga valley forms the southern part, all of which has been filled up with sand and gravel except the part occupied by the lake." Geology of New York, Third District, p. 241. Professor Newberry says : " The long level of the Erie canal between Utica and Rome lies in the old partially filled valley of the Mohawk." Geology of Ohio, 1874, p. 16. In this channel are bored the Salina salt wells, the deepest of which extends 414 feet below the level of the lake, and it is not certain that the rock was reached in this.* Dr. Newberry says : " The rocky bottom of the valley of the Mohawk is far below the surface — how far is not known, as it has never been readied" These figures warrant the couclusion that there exists a buried channel leading south-east from some point in the Ontarian val- ley near Oswego to Lake Onondaga and thence eastward towards Rome and Utica in the valley of the Mohawk. Beyond this point it has not been investigated, but there can be little doubt of its communicating by the valley of the Mohawk with that of the Hudson somewhere near Albany. It is also reasonable to * Geology of Ohio, Vol. II, p. 16. Here by an error the surface of the lake is put at 274 feet above the Atlantic. But as the survey of New York shews a fall of 66 feet in the upper Niagara rapids, 160 feet at the Falls, and 104 feet in the lower rapids, or 330 feet in all, it is evident that the surface of Lake Ontario must be 235 feet only above the ocean. The Survey of Canada also (1863, p. 10) gives the fall from the Lake to the Atlantic 232 feet, a discrepancy of only 3 feet. By another error we are here told that at 414 feet below the lake-level, we are only 50 feet below the sea-level, whereas if 234 be subtracted from 414, the difference shews that we must be 180 feet below the surface of the Atlantic. It is difficult to discover which of the given data is wrong — the depth below the lake or that below the ocean. No. 4.J CLAYPOLE — PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY. 195 infer that its bottom lies nearly or quite as low as that of the lake, so that in the later Tertiary age before it was filled with clay and sand, the waters of the Ontarian valley must have found their way by Oswego, Syracuse, Rome, Utica and Albany to the sea. The present lake basin, therefore, like those of Lakes Erie and Huron, must have formed an open valley drained by the river whose upper course was pointed out above, and which, considering its lower course, we may well christen the "Pre-Glacial Mohawk." An objection will here be raised which must be met. The bed of Lake Ontario lies 215 feet below the present level of the Atlantic, while the bed of Lake Erie is 330 feet* above it, conse- quently, while there is no obstacle to the flow of this ancient Mohawk from the Erie to the Ontarian valley, it will be impos- sible to explain its course from the latter to the sea. A like difficulty is found in establishing the flow of the river from the Huron basin into that of Lake Erie, the bed of the former lying 230 feet below the Atlantic level, while that of the latter is 330 feet above it, giving an ascent of more than 500 feet. If the relative levels of sea and land were then as they are now, such a course for this pre-glacial river was impossible. But there is much reason to believe that before the coming on of the great ice age the present relative levels of land and sea did not exist. It is the opinion of many geologists, among whom we may men- tion Professor Dana, that the glacial era was a time of conti- nental elevation in high northern latitudes, and that this eleva- tion became less and less towards the equator. But what- ever may have been the case at and before its commencement, it is more probable that during the ice age the land to the north underwent depression in relation to the sea, whether the result of a rise in the ocean waters or not" may be left for the present undetermined. Be this however as it may, most geologists are agreed that before the ice age, during the later Tertiary and early Quaternary eras, the northern part of the continent was more elevated than now. " The Atlantic coast of North America to the north of Cape Cod was higher than now during the Cretaceous and Tertiary eras, as is shown by the absence of sea-shore deposits of these eras." Dana's Manual, 1874, p. 540. * In these figures no account is taken of the recent deposits in the beds of the lakes. 196 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Yol. viiL It will be necessary therefore to consider the bearings of this fact on the course of the pre-glacial Mohawk. It is difficult, perhaps impossible at present, to arrive at exact conclusions in regard to its amount or its rate of increase northwards, but a consideration of the phenomena presented by European and American geology inclines us to assume that it was not exces- sive, and that a rate of about three feet in a mile would not vary much from the truth. With this estimate then we must now calculate the effect of such an elevation on the various parts of the bed of the river, and in so doing it will be sufficient for our purpose to start from the mouth of the present Hudson River in the harbour of New York in north latitude 40J°. The change would place the western end of the Erie valley 645 feet above the present Atlantic level, or 315 feet higher than now. But the same change would elevate the Huron valley in lat. 45° to a position 720 feet above the same level, and give a fall of rather less than 100 feet from the latter to the former, making the flow of the Mohawk not only possible but necessary. In the next place the bed of Lake Ontario lies nearly 500 feet below that of Lake Erie, and as the change now in view would not lessen this amount by more than 150 feet, it is evident that no difficulty will be introduced to prevent the flow of the river from the latter into the former, and it only remains therefore to consider the relative levels at that day of the Ontarian valley and New York harbour. The deepest part of the Ontarian valley in lat. 43J° now lies, as we have said, at more than 200 feet below the surface of the Atlantic. The three degrees of latitude between the two points correspond to an elevation of 630 feet. This would place the Ontarian valley about 400 feet above the mouth of the Hudson, and supply ample fall for the river in its course of about 400 miles between the two points. It must not be supposed that the figures above given are strictly accurate, accuracy being unattainable in the present state of our knowledge. They are only intended to show that there is no difficulty, when all the facts and probabilities are taken into account, in maintaining that in later Tertiary times a pre-glacial Mohawk, greater than the present river, drained the Huron valley and flowed through the gorge of Detroit into the vale of Erie. Taking its course to the north-east it received tributaries, among them the Maumee, the Rocky River, and the Cuyahoga, and passed through a chasm not far from the present No. 4.] CLAYPOLE — PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY. 197 Niagara, probably forming a series of Rapids into the Ontarian plain. After traversing this from west to east, it escaped through the buried channel at Oswego, which it followed along the course of the present Mohawk until it reached the Hudson, then perhaps the smaller stream, and both united entered the Atlantic at some point south-east of where New York now stands. One other point deserves a passing notice, but, for want of exact knowledge, it can only be at present an indication of pro- bability. A striking feature in the geology of Canada is the great Silurian escarpment, as it is called. It consists of a range of cliffs, in some places two or three hundred feet high, com- mencing on the west bank of the Hudson, and forming the southern boundary of the valley of the Mohawk. Thence ex- tending nearly due west to Niagara it sweeps round the western end of Lake Ontario to Cabot's Head, the Manitoulin Isles and Mackinaw, and skirts the western shore of Lake Michigan.* This escarpment faces the north, and forms, at present, an imperfect division between Lake Huron and the Georgian vale. But when elevated, as in the later Tertiary age, it must have formed a water-shed between the Huronian valley and that in which now lie the waters of the Georgian Bay ; and the question arises, in what direction did the waters of the Georgian valley then flow ? A study of the geography of the country leads to the suspicion that they may have found their way to the east- ward by the valleys of the present Severn and Trent and the Bay of Quinte. Sir William Logan, writing on this subject in the Geology of Canada, 1863, pp. 12, 13, describes a ridge of drift material running nearly east and west, at a short distance from Lake Ontario, and dividing the Lake Basin from the val- ley of the Trent or Ottonnabee. " Between the Holland and the Humber, Mr. Tully in his report on the proposed Georgian Bay canal, states the height of the ridge to be 904 feet above the sea. To the east of this it is crossed by the Toronto and Simcoe * It appears as if geologists who advocate the excavation of the basins of the great lakes by the action ot northern ice flowing off the Laurentian highlands, are somewhat oblivious of the existence of this escarpment. If the ice possessed the enormous eroding power on rocks and cliffs so often attributed to it, it must certainly have cut away and destroyed this gigantic barrier to its advance before pro- ceeding to scoop out deep basins to the southward. 198 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Yol. viii. railroad, while to the west where it abuts against the Upper Silurian escarpment, and separates the Humber from the Notta- wasaga, its height is 950 feet." " Lake Simcoe is a tributary to Lake Huron, and lies 704 feet above the sea, but the depression in which it is situated is a continuation of the valley of the Trent, which can thus be traced from the Georgian Bay to Kingston." " If the palaeozoic rock surface beneath the drift ridge pre- sents the same character as it does in other parts of the plain, it seems probable that it rises with a pretty even slope from the exposures on the lake to those north of it in the latitude of Peterborough, and that a depression accompanies the softer de- posits from the Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario. This would give a probable depth of 400 feet to the drift along the chief part of the ridge, and a still greater depth over the depression." Now Lake Simcoe, lying 704 feet above the sea, is only 130 feet above the level of Lake Huron, and if, as Sir Wm. Logan supposes, the rock lies more than 400 feet below the surface, it is evident that before the deposition of the drift, the waters of the Georgian valley may have flowed eastward along the depres- sion where now lies the chain of Lakes Simcoe, Balsam, Cameron , Sturgeon, Mud, Salmon Trout, and Bice, and the present river Trent into the Bay of Quinte, at the eastern end of which they may have entered the Ontarian valley, and the pre-glacial Otton- nabee may have been a tributary of the pre-glacial Mohawk. These are some of the changes which the elevation of the northern part of the continent before the deposition of the drift, probably implied, bnt we can trace them somewhat further. Three-fifths of the great system of fresh water lakes have already disappeared from our Tertiary geography, and it is evident that the same elevation will efface the most beautiful river of the continent, the St. Lawrence. The St. Lawrence, at Quebec, is much farther to the north than Lake Ontario. The elevation due to its latitude, at the same rate as before, must have placed it at the time in question about 1300 feet above the Atlantic, while Montreal and Kingston were nearly 1000 feet above the same level. Instead therefore of flowing to^ the north-east the drainage of the waters of the district must have taken a south-westerly direction, and in all probability passed by some channel across the great plain be- tween the St. Lawrence and the Green Mountains, not far it No. 4.] CLAYPOLE — PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY. 199 may be from the course of the present Richelieu, into the valley of Lake Champlain and thence into the Hudson River, at that time a tributary to the Mohawk. At the present day the dis- tance between the Hudson and the Lake is only " 20 miles, with a height of land between them only 120 feet above the sea." Geology of Canada, 1863, p. 8. Without taking into account therefore the layer of superficial deposits of which this height of land in part consists, it is easy to see that the course here suggested was then a more probable outlet for the Canadian waters from the north-east than that which they now follow. Those to the west of Montreal may have taken a course to the westward, and have entered the On- tarian valley near its eastern end, and become tributary to the Mohawk before it entered the Oswego chasm. In order to show that the phenomena of the adjoining lakes, Michigan and Superior do not conflict with the results that we have thus far obtained, it may be well to refer to them for a moment. The bed of Lake Superior now lies about 200 feet below the Atlantic. It must therefore at the time and with the elevation in question have been more than 1300 feet above it. Moreover the researches of the Michigan Geological Survey have disclosed the existence of an old channel now filled with drift- clay and sand reaching southward from the south shore of the lake. The facts connected with the discovery are thus given by Mr. N. H. Winchell in a paper on the glacial features of Green Bay in the Am. Journal of Science and Arts for July, 1871 : " If we examine the south shore of Lake Superior we find that in a line directly north of little Bay de Noc occurs the only break in the otherwise continuous rocky barrier." " From the mouth of the Chocolate River, six or eight miles east of Marquette to a point one mile and a half east of the mouth of the Train River, the shore is low and occupied by drift deposits, the usual rocky barrier of sandstone being interrupted or entirely wanting. Both to the east and to the west from this interval the shore of the lake is formed by the rocky ramparts either of the Lake Superior sandstone on the east or of the Hurouian and other Eozoic rocks upon the west." " In relation to the country between the head of little Bay de Noc and the shore of Lake Superior, we may infer that a valley exists or did exist connecting Lake Superior with Lake Michi- gan through little Bay de Noc, and that the present outlet of 200 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. Lake Superior is of comparatively recent date. Not only do the descriptions of this tract by Messrs. Foster and Whitney confirm this inference, but examinations of the district since made by Mr. Wadsworth of the Michigan Geological Survey, almost directly demonstrate the former outlet of Lake Superior to have been through the White Fish valley." " It appears that the outlet of Lake Superior was through little Bay de Noc up to the close of the Tertiary age." Of course we are as yet unable to give the depth of this channel, but considering the change of elevation it is not improbable that we have here the pre-glacial outlet from the valley, and that Lake Superior then existed as a vast, open, almost level plain, through which flowed a river to the southward. We incline however to think that instead of leading into the valley of Lake Michigan, as Mr. Winchell sup- poses, this river flowed more to the south-westward, through Lake Winnebago and Lake Horicon by the valley of Rock River, and met the Mississippi near where Rock Island now lies. In confirmation of this view we cite the following : " The State of Wisconsin is traversed by a remarkable valley. Commencing north of Lake Michigan, near Lake Superior, this depression runs south west, and contains in its northern part the waters of Green Bay, and in its southern portion those of Rock River. It pursues an almost straight course for 400 miles and terminates on the Mississippi, where Rock River flows into it. From the northwest the country descends by a gentle slope into the valley, but from the south-west it breaks down suddenly and often by a perpendicular precipice. A rocky ridge, the Upper Silurian escarpment spoken of above, or rather an elevated region of Silurian rock, some 300 feet in height, separates this valley from Lake Michigan." E. Andrews, M.D., in Am. Journal of Science and Arts for September, 1£69.* The condition of the Michigan valley during the same era was similar to that of the valley of Lake Superior. In the geo- logy of Ohio (Vol. 2, p. 13), we read : " An excavated trough runs northward " (southward) " from Lake Michigan to the north line of Iroquois county, Illinois, thence south-west through * We may mention here that Mr. Gr. M. Dawson in his recent report on the geology of part of the region near the 49th parallel, states his belief that in pre-glacial times Lake Winnipeg also had a southern outlet. No. 4.] CLAYPOLE — PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY. 201 Champagne county, beyond which it has not been traced. Its western margin is sharply marked at Chatsworth in Livingstone county, where it has a depth of 200 feet, and reaches the Cin- cinnati group. Farther north, its boundary walls are composed of Niagara limestone, and terminate in buried cliffs on the Calu- met and Kankakee Rivers. At Bloomington this trough has a depth of 230 feet. . . . Where penetrated in other localities the depth of this channel is from 75 to 200 feet." This channel leaves the basin of Lake Michigan near Chicago, where the land is now but few feet above the level of the lake, and its course appears to be marked out by a remarkable chain of forest oases in the prairies of Illinois, extending along the line indicated above. Whether, however, it reached the Missis- sippi directly, or indirectly through the valleys of the Wabash and Ohio, is not easy at present to determine. Further investi- gation along the line of the buried channel, can alone set at rest this uncertainty. The depth of Lake Michigan may be set down at about 900 feet, and if we assume this and the greatest known depth of the buried channel at Bloomington as data, we find that, with the rate of elevation previously employed, the bed of the lake was 170 feet above the bottom of the buried channel. Here therefore we have an outlet by which the waters of the Michigan valley escaped into the great midland plain, and reached its draining stream, the Mississippi. In that event there was a river which may be named for the present the pre-glacial Michigan, traversing the long vale of the same name, narrower and deeper than those before described, and yet with sides sloping only about twenty- five feet in a mile. Reviewing the results thus obtained, the early Quaternary Geography of the North American continent presents to the eye an appearance very different from that of the present day. The great river of the north-east was not the St. Lawrence but the Mohawk. Rising in the slopes of the wide and open Huron valley, it passed thence through the gorge at Detroit into the vale of Erie receiving tributaries on both banks. Thence it found its way through a similar gorge not very far from Niagara into the Ontarian valley, receiving on its way the waters of the Genessee, the Ottonnabee, and perhaps also of the Ottawa. It passed onwards through the deep and drift-filled channel under Lake Onondaga and the valley of the present Mohawk to the 202 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. Vlii. valley of the present Hudson, and reached the Atlantic some- where to the south-east of New York harbour, after a course of nearly 1000 miles, while its former tributary, the Hudson, ap- pears to have drained the district whose waters now find an out- let to the Lower St. Lawrence. In the west the broad open vales of Superior and Michigan poured forth their waters to the south to meet the great Midland River of the Continent, the Mississippi, while the waters of the Georgian Bay instead of communicating, as at present, with Lake Huron, flowed directly into the Ontarian valley somewhere along the line of the present Ottonnabee. From the position maintained in the present paper, several facts otherwise difficult of explanation, become consistent with one another, and are, in fact, necessary consequences of the principle here laid down. The great depth of the lakes to the northward is a result of the previous elevation and subsequent depression, which we have assumed as the basis of our reasoning. The almost uniform descent in the channel of the pre-glacial Mohawk from the valley of Lake Huron to New York harbour would be restored if elevation to the same amount should again take place and the accumulation of drift be removed. The shallowness of Lake Erie at its western end is a consequence of its southerly position which lessened the depression it has since undergone. It increases in depth to the north-east. Ontario is deeper than Erie, while the three upper lakes extending much farther to the north are also considerably deeper, because of the greater subsidence their basins have since experienced.* Another fact which this principle explains is the excavation of many part of these channels below the level of the sea. The bottoms of lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron and Ontario, are all more than 200 feot below the surface of the Atlantic- The same is true of the buried channel under Lake Onondaga, and also t oa less degree of several places in the present Hudson River. There is no evidence that cataracts ever existed to scoop out these basins, and with one exception no other agent has ever been brought forward to explain their formation. That agent is ice, and to it some writers are disposed to attribute effects which the evidence fails to support. We have already alluded to the * A similar explanation may be given of the great depth of the bed of the Saguenay and the lower St. Lawrence. No. 4.] CLAYPOLE — PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY. 203 opinions of Dr. Newberry as expressed in the volumes of the Ohio Survey. It seems necessary, however, to dwell on this point somewhat more fully in order to show that the theory of the origin of our lake basins here maintained is more consonant with facts than that which attributes it to the action of ice. Dr. Newberry says (1876, p. 74) : " There can be no doubt that the basin of each of the great lakes has been produced by a local glacier, and that the great ice-sheet which existed during the period of intensest cold, moving as a solid continuous mass of <>reat thickness from north to south would have the effect to obliterate rather than to form such local troughs. Our lake basins must therefore have been formed before or after the continental glacier, or both before and after. Probably the latter is the true statement of the case." The central and eastern portions of the bed of Lake Erie were once occupied by soft rocks. Of these more than 1000 feet in thickness were removed. To this enormou? erosion by the ice, to which Dr. Newberry evidently ascribes the origin of the Erie valley, the following passage from the same volume suggests a serious objection : " An interesting fact was noticed by Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Winchell and myself, that in the north-west portion of the State, a series of glacial markings which have a nearly north and south bearing are obliterated (nearly obliterated ?) by the stronger, fresher, and more numerous grooves of which the bearing is nearly east and west." The north and south grooves, to which Dr. Newberry here refers, are of course those attributed to the continental ice-sheet, while the east aud west grooves of later date are those caused by the local glacier which followed it as the ice-sheet dwindled away. We cannot agree, however, with Dr. Newberry's reading of this natural palimpsest, for it appears highly improbable that the excavation of the lake basin was principally effected by this local east-west glacier, which was evidently unable to remove the superficial scratches left by its larger predecessor. All will agree, we think, with Dr. Newberry that the effect of the great ice sheet would be to obliterate rather than to form such local troughs. But even this planing effect seems greatly overrated. There is no proof that the great ice-sheet has re- moved more than an inconsiderable layer of the superficial rock of the region. Why then, we may ask, should a local glacier be supposed able to excavate so deeply rocks on which the great Vol. VIII. n No. 4 204 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. continental glacier produced so small an effect ? In short we have as yet no evidence that either local glaciers or a continental ice-sheet could excavate the basins of the great American lakes. The effect seems more justly attributable to the slow action of a river during part or the whole of the Secondary and Tertiary eras. The three lakes, Huron, Erie and Ontario, are therefore on the view here maintained, only the broad portions of the valley of an ancient river, the narrow parts of whose channel were filled up with drift during the glacial era. A glance at the geology of the region confirms this view. The western end of Lake Erie lies on the hard Corniferous limestone, but the greater part of the lake basin is excavated out of the Hamilton and Erie shales, which are comparatively soft. At the eastern end of the lake the Upper Silurian ridge of Niagara limestone crosses the course of the river. The Ontarian basin also is cut out chiefly in the Hudson River shales, while hard rock again ensues be- tween it and the sea. Accordingly we have the gorge at Detroit in the hard limestone, the broad open valleys of Erie and On- tario in the softer shales, and the channel at Niagara between them, worn in the Upper Silurian limestone. It is easy to see that the rate of erosion in the softer rocks must have been limited by the rate at which the hard limestone barriers could be cut down. The river meandered, as is usual with rivers, hither and thither over the wide plain, gradually excavating the valley by cutting down and carrying away the material as fast as the rocky bars were lowered. And when the length of time during which the work may have been in progress is considered, no one familiar with the phenomena of subaerial erosion will deem the cause insufficient. Let any one who doubts reflect on the examples to be found in other parts of the world. Let him turn to south-western Ohio, and see how the hard Niagara lime- stone has been swept away over a wide district, where existing outliers prove that it was formerly present, and by rivers of com- paratively insignificant size — the two Miamis and their tribu- taries. Let him also realize how large a lake would be formed by damming back the Ohio at Cincinnati with a mole one or two hundred feet in height, and we think all difficulty will vanish in admitting the erosion which we here imply, vast as it is, during the time that elapsed from the Carboniferous to the Quaternary era — that is during the whole Secondary and Tertiary ages. No. 4.] CLAYPOLE — PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY. 205 The scenery along such a river presented alternately the low- wide landscape of the open plain and the deep contracted view of the narrow pass, each passing into the other, as the under- lying rocks change from soft to hard or from hard to soft. The spread of drift-material over the face of the country left the narrow gorges completely choked. As the rivers began again to flow after the ice-age had passed away they were unable to find their ancient channels along these narrow chasms, and conse- quently the water accumulated in the valley until it rose suffi- ciently high to flow over the barrier at its lowest point, wheu it commenced anew the task of cutting a gorge through the same limestone ridge, first in the drift material on the surface, and then in the solid rock below. This process may now be seen going on at Niagara Falls. The great American lakes therefore are nothing but mere drift-dammed pools, filling the wide portions of the channels of pre-glacial rivers, while the narrow chasms connecting them are concealed by superficial deposits of clay and sand. Should the present condition of things continue long enough, the rocky bar- rier between Erie and Ontario will be again cut down, and the present lake above the Falls converted again into the broad open plain of the later Tertiary age. New falls or rapids will be developed near Detroit as the excavation of the Erie basin pro- ceeds, and the levels of lakes Huron and Michigan correspond- ingly lowered ; wThile by the gradual wearing down of the rocky bars now forming the rapids on the St. Lawrence, as much of the water in Lake Ontario will be carried away as the relative levels of that lake and the Atlantic will allow. But neither Michigan, Huron, nor Ontario can ever be laid dry by this pro- cess, and their end cau only come, catastrophes excepted, by the slow but steady process of silting up. The same process to some extent must occur in Lake Superior. The wearing down at the falls of St. Mary will lower its level, but the deposit from its tributary streams alone can entirely obliterate it. One result of the Quaternary age has therefore been to transfer a great part of the basin of the pre-glacial Mohawk to the basin of the St. Lawrence, a younger and Quaternary river. But no great alteration in level would be required to change again the course of these northern waters. The sewers of Chicago now carry the water of Lake Michigan into the Mississippi valley, the watershed between the two being only li) feet above the 206 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. lake, or about 23 feet above Lake Erie. Evidently, therefore, a very slight rise in the bed of Niagara river would raise the level of the three lakes and cause their waters to flow south- into the Mississippi rather than north-east into the Atlantic. But great as these changes in the physical geography of the country appear, they are geologically trifling. The general surface was then as it is now. No new mountains have risen, and little progress has been made in the destruction of old ones. The great midland valley extended from the Alleghany Moun- tains westward, and was drained by the Mississippi, the Father of Waters in age not less than size. The Adirondacks, the Laurentides, the Green and White Mountains, the Catskills, and the Helderberg range then stood as now, while along the eastern border of the Continent the Alleghanies and the Blue Ridge formed its Atlantic frontier, their western slopes being drained by the Ohio and its tributaries, flowing at least a hundred feet below their present level.* * The substance of this paper was delivered before the Cincinnati Natural History Society in January, 1875, and illustrated by a map which is not reproduced here. The argument however appears in- telligible without its aid. No. 4. I DAWSON — THE LOCUST INVASION. 207 NOTES ON THE APPEARANCE AND MIGRATIONS OF THE LOCUST IN MANITOBA AND THE NORTH- WEST TERRITORIES— SUMMER OF 1875. By George M. Dawson, Assoc. R.S.M., F.G.S. From the reports now received from Manitoba and various portions of the North-west Territory, and published in abstract with these notes, it would appear that during the summer of 1875 two distinct elements were concerned in the locust mani- festation. First, the insects hatching in the Province of Mani- toba and surrounding regions from eggs left by the western and north-western invading swarms of the previous autumn; second, a distinct foreign host, moving, for the most part, from south to north. The locusts are known to have hatched in great numbers over almost the entire area of Manitoba, and westward at least as far as Fort Ellice on the Assineboine River (long. 101° 20') and may probably have been produced, at least sporadically, in other portions of the central regions of the plains; though in the summer of 1874, this district was nearly emptied to recruit the swarms devastating Manitoba and the Western States, and there appears to have been little if any influx to supply their place. Still further west, on the plains along the base of the Rocky Mountains, from the 49th parallel to the Red Deer River, locusts are known to have hatched in considerable num- bers— but of these more anon. Hatching began in Manitoba and adjacent regions in favour- able localities as early as May 7th, but does not seem to have become general till about the 15th of the month, and to have continued during the latter part of May and till the 15th of June; while, according to Mr. Gunn and others, in cold clayey land and where pools of water from the meltiug of the snow lay long, isolated colonies came out at still later dates. Mr. Gunn states that grasshoppers were even noticed to hatch in August and September, in spots which had been covered with water all summer, a fact showing the very persistent vitality of the eggs, and apparently negativing opinions which have been expressed as to their destruction by damp. The most northern locality at which locusts are reported to have been produced from the egg, is at Manitoba House, Manitoba Lake. 208 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viil. The destruction of crops by the growing insects, in all the settled regions was very great, and in many districts well nigh complete. The exodus of these broods began in the early part of July, but appears to have been most general during the middle and latter part of that month, and first of August. The direc- tion taken on departure was, with very little exception, south- east or south. It is to be remarked, that as there does not seem to have been during this period any remarkable persistency of north-west or northerly winds, the insects must have selected those favouring their intended direction of migration, an instinct which has very generally been observed elsewhere. Though most of the parents, in 1874, came from the west and north- west, and Manitoba must have represented to those endiDg their flight there, the south-eastern limit of their range ; the young insects of 1875 thus took a south-eastward direction, just as though starting from their usual breeding-grounds in the far north-west, and showed no disposition to return to the region whence their parents came. This direction of flight carried many of the insects at once into a country of thick woods, swamps, and lakes; and caused the repetition of the phenomenon of the appearance of grasshoppers in great numbers about the Lake of the Woods, a circumstance only once before noted — in the summer of 1857.* This previous occasion however differed from that of last year in being an extension of an invasion of Manitoba from the west or north-west, and not resulting from insects hatching in that province. It is probable that most of the grasshopper swarms of Manitoba, thus entering the wooded country, were there harm- lessly spent, for though some northern swarms reached the State of Minnesota, the invasion appears to have been comparatively unimportant. Northern swarms are noted to have passed over Crookston (Polk County, Minnesota), and Fort Totten, (Dakota) ; the greatest number appearing at the latter place July 19th. The locust swarms described by Mr. Riley f in the following paragraph, from information furnished to the Chicago Tribune, dated July 13th, probably also came from Manitoba : " The first foreign hoppers appeared on the Sioux City Road, alighting be- » Not 1867 as crroniously printed in Notes for 1874. f From Mr. Chas. V. Riley's very interesting Eighth Annual Re- port on the Noxious, Beneficial, and other Insects of the State of Missouri. No. 4.] DAWSON — LOCUST INVASION OF 1875. 209 tween Lake Crystal and St. James on Wednesday last. A few days later they were observed at New Ulm flying south-east, and at noon of the same day struck the line of the road at Madelina, St. James, Fountain Lake, Windom, and Heron Lake, covering the track for about 50 miles of its length." It will be observed on referring to the summary on another page, that the insects produced in Minnesota itself flew south-west in the early part of July. I have not been able to trace further the movements of these Manitoba broods, unless indeed it be supposed that some at least of the swarms which passed over central Illinois early in September, came from that quarter. These, however, Mr. Riley believes not to have been the true migratory locust — Caloptenus xpretus. Foreign swarms from the south crossed the 49th parallel with a wide front stretching from the 98th to the 108th meridian, and are quite distinguishable from those produced in the country, from the fact that many of them arrived before the latter were mature. These flights constituted the extreme nor- thern part of the army returning northward and northwestward from the states ravaged in the autumn of 1874. They appeared at Fort Ellice on the 13th of June, and at Qu'Appelle Fort on the 17th of the same month, favoured much no doubt by the steady south and south-east winds, which according to the mete- orological register at Winnipeg, prevailed on the 12th of June and for about a week thereafter. After their first appearance, however, their subsequent progress seems to have been compara- tively slow, and their advancing border very irregular in outline. They are said to have reached Swan Lake House — the most northern point to which they are known to have attained — about July 10; while Fort Pelly, further west, and nearly a degree further south, was reached July 20th, and about seven days were occupied in the journey thence to Swan River Barracks, a distance of only ten miles. It is more than probable that the first southern swarms were followed by others, which mingled with them, or even, in parts of Manitoba and the country im- mediately west of it, with the indigenous brood. From a few localities only, in Manitoba — and those in its western portion — is the evidence pretty conclusive as to the arrival of foreign swarms from the south. Burnside, Westbourne, Portage La Prairie, Rockwood, and Pigeon Lake, may be mentioned as affording instances. 210 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. V1U. Many of the grasshoppers observed, according to reports re- ceived by Mr. Riley, in Dakota, at Fort Thompson, Yankton, Fort Sully, Springfield, Fort Randall, and Bismark, flying north- ward and north-westward at various dates in June and July, no doubt eventually found their way north of the 49th parallel. Those seen at Bismark about June 6th and 7th, probably belonged to the earliest southern bands above referred to, and judging from the dates given by Mr. Riley, may have been pro- duced in Nebraska, or more probably even still further south. A portion of the southern and eastern army probably reached Montana, and may even have penetrated in diminished numbers into the districts in the vicinity of Bow River. A considerable number of locusts appear to have hatched at about the same date as in Manitoba, near the extreme western margin of the plains, especially in the country near Bow River. Foreign swarms arrived at Fort McLeod from the south-west, depositing eggs ; and most of those hatching near Bow River, and further north, seem to have gone south-eastward early in August. No very definite or wide spread movement of swarms appears, however, to have occurred during the summer of 1875 in this region, nor, if we may judge from the very meagre accounts re- ceived, in the corresponding portion of Montana. The following notes, representing the condition of affairs in the Western States and Territories, south of the 49th parallel, are abstracts of the accounts in Mr. C. V. Riley's work, already referred to, and will serve as a basis of comparison : Texas and Indian Territory. Hatched in large numbers early in spring in Texas and Indian Territory. Left in May, and early in June, going for the most part north Kansas. Ravages confined to districts 150 miles long, 50 broad, along eastern border of State, this being the region where most eggs laid in 1874. Hatching from April 6th to May 10th. Flew north-west in latter part of May and first week in June. Colorado. Hatched pretty generally over the territory, ap- pearing from early in May till July, according to elevation. Prevalent direction of flight on departure south and south-east. Nebraska. Hatching ground limited to districts bordering Missouri River. Insects produced early in May, and began to fly northward about June 7th. Several swarms from more southern regions passed north-westward over the State before those hatching here took wing. No. 4.] DAWSON — LOCUST INVASION OF 1875. 211 Missouri. Hatched early in May, especially in the middle western counties. Began leaving early in June, the majority departing about the middle of the month. Main direction of flight, north-westward. Iowa. Locusts hatched in a few localities near the south- west boundary of the State. From the 10th of June to the middle of July western counties suffered from swarms passing from south to north. Minnesota. Hatched pretty generally throughout western part of State. Some appeared as early as April and were killed by cold and wet. The majority left early in July, and appear to have gone south-westward. Dakota. Known to have hatched near the southern boundary of Manitoba. These insects, and those from further north, went southward early in August. During June, and in August, foreign swarms parsed over the State goiug north-westward. Montana. Some probably hatched here, and swarms from the east aud south-east appeared during July. During the summer of 1875, the conditions described in the Notes for 1874 as occurring in the region west of the 103rd meridian, were reproduced in Manitoba, and over a great area of the Western and South-western States, with results even more disastrous to the crops than those of the winged invasion of the previous year. We do not hear of any access of fresh swarms to Manitoba from the west or north-west, nor is it probable that any such occurred, notwithstanding the fact that in various parts of the province flights are reported to have passed over from north-west to south-east. From the dates and descriptions given, it seems certain, that these were only those from the more remote parts of the province itself, and in many cases the broods hatched in any locality miugled with those coming from a little distance, and departed at the same time. The most remarkable and exceptional feature in connec- tion with the appearance of the locusts in 1875, is the extensive invasion of the wooded region east of Manitoba by the swarms produced in the Province. This is the more noticeable when contrasted with the immunity enjoyed by Prince Albert on the Saskatchewan, alluded to in last year's Notes, which is owing to its separation from the general area of the plains by a belt of timber. On writing to Mr. Clarke of Carleton House on the subject, he informs me that this protecting belt of " fir timber " 212 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. is only four miles in width, and extends completely across be- tween the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan. Judging from the above remarkable fact, and the known habits of the locust, I do not think that the incursion made into the forest country can be looked upon as anything but exceptional, and perhaps showing that the locusts had lost their reckoning. Nor do I believe that it should discourage the cultivation of belts of woodland, which promises to effect in time a general and permanent amelioration of the grasshopper plague. Broadly sketched, the movements of the locust in 1875 con- form to a general plan. All those hatching in Minnesota, Manitoba, northern Dakota, and in the high western region of the plains at least as far south as Colorado, on obtaining their wings went southward, and this in some instances regardless of the direction from which their parents had arrived in the previous year. Swarms produced in Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Indian Territory, flew northward and north-westward, re- turning on the course of their parents, which had flown south- eastward from that quarter. This movement can be traced over an immense area, from the northern borders of Texas almost to the Saskatchewan River. Evidence appears to be fast accumulating to show that the general and normal direction of flight for any brood, is to return toward the hatching grounds from which their parents came, and it would thus seem, that to complete the migration- cycle of the locust, two years are required. The tendency which the swarms show to migrate on reaching maturity cannot be wondered at, as it is so commonly met with in other animals, and may be assisted by the mere lack of food in the district which has for a long time supported the young locusts. The fact however — let us call it instinct or knowledge — that the young, while amenable to the migratory tendency, show a deter- mination to exercise it in a direction exactly the opposite of the preceding generation, is most remarkable. No panacea against the grasshopper appears yet to have been found, nor does it seem likely that any such will be discovered. The means of making war upon the young insects and winged swarms, with a degree of efficiency dependent largely on the determination of the people, and density of settlement in the afflicted districts, are now well known. Though it is to be hoped that Manitoba and the settled portions of the North-west may No. 4.] DAWSON — LOCUST INVASION OF 1875. 213 long escape further trouble from these depredators, it is none the less a duty to prepare for a possible repetition of the scenes which have already been witnessed there. In various portions of the United States, the destruction of the young insects has been greatly encouraged by the payment of bounties for that purpose from the public treasuries, but with a plague so wide- spread as that of the locust, the means most likely to lead to permanent amelioration are those capable of general application. The movement in the Western States toward the appointment of a commission by the central government to investigate all the facts connected with the locust trouble, and suggest means for its relief, is in the right direction ; and if such a commission is appointed, it would appear to be of the greatest importance that Canada should take similar action, and at the same time, for its western territory. By such general measures as the cultivation and preservation of forest trees, the protection of the prairie grass till the appro- priate time for destroying the young insects in their hatching grounds by fire, and the encouragement of all birds feeding on the young or fledged, imsect, much may be done. The prairie chicken, and the various species of blackbirds, get the credit of devouring great numbers of the young grasshoppers, and if these were protected by more stringent laws, and even a- small increase in safety to the crops resulted, the loss of the one as a game bird and the damage frequently done by the other in the cornfields, would be more than counterbalanced. The point of prime importance however in the first instance, is to obtain a complete knowledge of the haunts and habits of the insect under discussion, and as a small contribution towards this end these notes are submitted. Mr. G. M. Dodge of Glencoe County, Nebraska, has published a theory relative to the cause or motive of the migrations of the locust, in the Canadian Entomologist for 1875. Mr. Dodge has kindly favoured me with an explanation of this theory. He writes : "I find the insects to be double brooded, flying north in spring to rear a second brood in a region not already devastated. The resulting brood flies south late in autumn, and deposit eggs that lie over winter. This regular movement is complicated by the fact that if the insects of brood first, hatching as far north as this place, should fly north, their progeny might be destroyed by frost; consequently I find that all hatching here or further 214 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. north (of brood first) fly south to renr the brood second. I believe with yourself that their natural habitation is the plains east of the mountains, and think that their occasional invasion of the States is due to the prevailing winds." After giving several instances from Nebraska bearing on his theory, Mr. Dodge, referring to my Notes on the Locust Invasion of 1874, says: " In your items from various localities, I find a point that bears directly upon the double brooded character of the insect, but which may have escaped your notice. In the notes from Fort Ellice, Headingly, Rockwood, Scratching River, Winnipeg, Stone Fort, and St. Anne's, eggs are said to have hatched in autumn ; and in each case grasshoppers are reported as coming from the south early in the season. These were of course of brood first; brood second coming always from a[ northerly direc- tion would deposit eggs for the next spring's brood, and none of them would hatch in autumn." I do not think Mr. Dodge's theory can be accepted in its en- tirety, though the locust may occasionally complete two genera- tions in one season, when the circumstances would no doubt be as above supposed. Certain it is, however, that southern swarms seldom if ever reach the country north of the 49th parallel in time to allow a second brood to reach maturity, even if the eggs hatch in summer or autumn. The date of arrival of the first swarms in Manitoba in 1874 was considered exceptionally early, and yet it is believed that all their progeny hatching during the autumn were destroyed by frost. The Hon. D. Gunn has favoured me with the following histor- ical notes on the grasshopper, going back to the earliest settle- ment of the Red River country : " The fi^t appearance of the locusts in this land, of which we have any account, took place on the 18th of July, 1818, six years after the commencement of the colony. At that period of the season the wheat was well advanced towards maturity, and eufiiciently strong to resist the voracious destroyers. But it fared otherwise with the barley. The locusts attacked the plants a few inches below the ear, and cut them off as neatly aa if cut off by the hand of man with a pair of shears. However on this occasion nothing was lost ; every ear that fell to the ground was carefully gathered up. The potatoes were injured to some extent, but all garden vegetables were devoured. Their eggs deposited, incited by instinct or pressed by hunger, they No. 4.] DAWSON — LOCUST INVASION OF 1875. 215 departed. In the following spring the young locusts began to appear, and before the latter end of May, 1819, the whole country was literally covered with them, and the rising crops of every kind entirely devoured. These in due time left to invade some other region. The opinion of the settlers who were here at the time was that they flew to the north and were driven by a strong south wind into Lake Winnipeg and drowned in such great numbers that the waves heaped them up, in some parts of the western shore, to a depth of several feet. As soon as these had taken their flight, fresh swarms poured in from the south- west, but found nothing to devour but the stinted natural grasses of the plains, which their predecessors had eaten to the very roots. Notwithstanding the scantiness of their diet, they depo- sited their eggs in great numbers, which the warmth of the fol- lowing spring ushered into life. At the usual time, the latter end of July and first week of August, they disappeared, and from 1820 to 1857 the country was free from the inroads of these formidable destroyers. In 1857 a considerable swarm of locusts visited the settlements on the lower Assiniboine in the latter end of July, but these did not extend in any considerable numbers towards lower Fort Garry. They deposited their eggs over what is now known as Headingly and White Horse Plain parishes, and in the spring of 1858 the young progeny destroyed the crops in the above-mentioned region, say a distance of twelve or fifteen miles. These after they attained their full growth, as usual left the country. In 1864 another invasion took place, great numbers of them fell on each side of the Assiniboine, and extended down to upper Fort Garry. On the 7th of July they flew in great numbers over the lower settlement. They were driven by a fresh breeze from the west, some of them appeared to be at a great height from the earth, the living mass extending downward to the height of a few feet from the surface, numbers of the lowermost falling continually to the ground. The fore- most part of the cloud began to pass over this place at 10 a.m., and they continued flying for some time after 2 p.m., and during the time of their flight they had fallen in such numbers that from twelve to twenty were counted on a square foot of surface. After a short rest, those which had alighted on ploughed lands and on barren spots moved into corn-fields and began feeding on the leaves of the wheat plant, and according to their usual habit cut off the heads of the barley. Here I had an opportu- 216 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viil. uity of observing that, as a rule, they do not pass the" night, under ordinary circumstances, on the ground, but climb upon pickets, fencing, and on every other object on which they can roost. On the tenth of July they were seen pairing and deposit- ing their ova. In the first week of September they disappeared. In the beginning of May, 1865, the young ones began to appear. On the 9th of June, 1865, a swarm of locusts came from the south. They extended from the west side of Lake Manitoba to Fort Alexander on the east. They fell in great numbers in that lake and on its eastern shore, but were very sparsely scat- tered over the country to the east of the above body of water. However those which were hatched in the spring, aud those that came in June did not seriously injure the growing crops, and the farmers reaped an abundant harvest. In 1867 the locusts made their appearance in very great numbers, but came about the beginning of August, aud consequently did not do much injury to the wheat crops, but many of the farmers had hard work to save the barley and oats. These, according to their habit, deposited their eggs in great numbers, and departed to die in some other place, either to the east or south-east of this place. The river ice began to break up on the 24th of April, 1868, and on the 7th of May I took the following note : ' Grass- hoppers moving about, color pale white, not much bigger than fleas.' On the 22nd of the same month their numbers had greatly increased, and some had become brown. They evidently continued coming out of the ground during the whole month of May, and a few perhaps during the first ten days of June. All the grain of every kind that was growing was eaten up by them before they took their departure, which was in the end of July aud during the first week of August. After this none were seen until 1872, when on the 5th of August they appeared. By the 12th they had become very numerous, and on the 14th they were depositing their eggs. In the first week of September many of them had taken their departure, and all disappeared by the last of that month. Their offspring began to appear about the middle of May, and by the middle of June the whole country was literally covered with them, no grain had been sown, the potatoe vines had been consumed, and even the pasture on the plains suffered greatly from their ravages. However they left about the usual time. The next and last visitation we had from these Living plagues was in July, 1874. On the 17th immense No. 4.] DAWSON — LOCUST INVASION OP 1875. 217 swarms for some hours flew over the city of Winnipeg; at the same time thousands of them were coming to the ground. In a few days after they extended their excursion to Lake Winni- peg, but numbers of them left before they had deposited their eggs. Yet millions of eggs were deposited, but as the last spring, 1875, was very late, the ground kept cold during the most part of the month of May, the locusts were very late in being hatched ; some made their appearance about the 10th of May, and others as late as the last week in that month. They were numerous in some places ; however I am of opinion that if the people had made a combined effort to destroy them during the first and second weeks of their existence, could not have failed in destroying many of them, and would by so doing, had they sown or planted, have raised both wheat and potatoes. Most people however became discouraged, and could not be per- suaded to make the least effort to rid the land of the plague." I have to thank the various gentlemen who have kindly re- plied in answer to my circular asking information, and beg to suggest that in all cases of the appearance of the locust, careful notes be kept as to dates, directions of flight, &e. In the subjoined digest, of the more important items received from the various localities, the places are arranged in order from west to east. Fort McLeod, North-west Territory. (R. R. Merritt, M.D.) No young insects observed. Foreign swarms arrived July 19th from the south-west, and continued passing, or on the ground — though most of them went on — till about August 25th ; went north-westward. Eggs were deposited and some known to have hatched in the autumn. No cultivation here, but 25 per cent, of prairie grass eaten. Mr. Merritt adds: "In April, 1876, many young black hoppers seen around Fort McLeod. On my trip from Row River, I saw a tract of country 70 miles wide covered with young grasshoppers. They appeared to be tating the grass, and only moving when disturbed." Morleyville, Bow River, N. W. T. (J. Macdougall.) Pro- duced here from the egg, hatching May 20th. Left in August going southward. A great swarm arrived on the wing from the northward about August 10th, the main body passed overhead 218 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. in about six hours going southward, while some remained several days on the ground. Some eggs deposited. Crops, represented by a small patch of potatoes, were not hurt. Bow River, N. W. T. (J. Brown.) Produced here from the egg, hatching about the first of May ; flew south-eastward from Oct. 1st to 15th. Winged swarms arrived late in July or about first of August, from the north and north-west, passing on for the most part, but depositing some eggs. The small quantity of crops put in were lost. Wild grasses in many places much injured, though bunch-grass of mountains untouched. Eggs hatched spring of 1876, and insects on July 25th almost ready to fly. Plains between Fort McLeod and Edmonton, N. W.T. (Rev. Constantine Scollen.) Produced in large numbers from the egg, hatching about June 1st. Left toward the latter part of August, going north and north-east. Great swarms appeared on the wing from the south and south-west August 1st, some alighting and others continuing their flight. Continued arriving till August 15th, and departing north and north-east, those pro- duced in the country accompanying them. Eggs deposited during latter part of August, none known to have hatched in autumn. Ma. Scollen adds: "I may remark that the grass- hopper during the last four years it has visited this country, has always come from and gone on in the same direction. They have always stopped about 60 miles south of Edmonton, perhaps owing to the densely wooded country in that vicinity." No cultivation in this region. Edmonton, N. W. T. (R. Hardisty.) The locust did not appear here. Mr. Hardisty writing from an experience of twenty years, states that he has never known the insect to appear at Edmonton, though he has ofteu seen them in large numbers about fifty miles south of that place. Edmonton is about forty miles from the northern edge of the plains, and separated from them by country well wooded with small poplar and pine, and having many small lakes, and swamps with strong heavy grass. Country between Battle and Red Deer Rivers, N.W.T. (W. McKay.) Grasshoppers did not appear in this region during the summer of 1875. Bozeman, Montana. (J. Wright.) Not produced from the egg. Arrived on the wing, appearing first on the 8th of July, but continued passing overhead in large swarms from the east for some time. No. 4. | DAWSON — THE LOCUST INVASION. 219 Victoria, Saskatchewan, N.W.T. (Chas. Adams.) Did not appear here. Carleton House, N.W.T. (L. Clarke.) Did not appear in this vicinity. Mr. Clarke writes : " From traders I have learned that grasshoppers appeared in great numbers about 130 miles to the south-west of Carleton. Again, they were seen to the south- east of Touchwood Hills as far east as Fort Pelly, destroying the crops at that station. Touchwood Hills Post, N. W. T. CR. W. Ells, Geological Survey of Canada.) Not produced from the egg here, but ar- rived on the wing, flying north-west. Very numerous July 30. Mr. Ells did not see any grasshoppers west of the Touchwood Hills. Fort Qu'Appelhj N.W.T. (W. J. McLean.) Not produced here from the egg. Full grown insects appeared in myriads, June 17th, coming from the south. Fort Pally, N. W. T. (A. McBeath.) Not hatched here. Swarms arrived on the wing, July 20th, from the south, and passed on northward. All crops destroyed. Eggs deposited, and none hatched in antumn. Mr. McBeath writes, — After the grasshoppers made their appearance here on the 20th of July, their progress was very slow. The Mounted Police barracks are some ten miles north of this place, yet they took two weeks to reach there. For a time it appeared that this place was the end of their journey, and they diminished very slowly. Many were k illed by the frost. As far as I could learn they did not go further north than about 30 miles from here. Shortly after their arrival they began depositing their eggs, and dying, till the ground was covered with their dead bodies. Swan River Barracks, Pelhj, N.W.T. (lat. 51° 53', long. 101° 59'. J. H. Kittson, M.D.) Not produced here, arrived on the wing July 27, from the south. Continued passing till Aug. 20, going in a direction north-west by north. Some re- mained, and eggs in considerable quantity deposited. Late in autumn insects remaining after depositing eggs were destroyed by small red parasites. Fort Ellice, N. W.T. (A. McDonald and R. W. Ells.) Pro- duced here from the egg, hatching about May 6th. By June 7th all growing crops destroyed. Left in the beginning of Yol. VIII. o No. 4 220 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. August, going south-east. On June 13th swarms arrived on the wing from the south or south-east, and at once began to deposit eggs. The first that arrived did not remain long on the ground. A second swarm arrived on the 10th of July, and about two days afterwards a third lot appeared. These also deposited eggs, the last remaining till the beginning of Septem- ber. All crops destroyed — oats and barley. No eggs hatched in autumn. Mr. Ells writes that eggs were deposited at Fort Ellice as early as the 20th of June. Swan Lake House, N.W.T. (D. McDonald.) A few locusts observed to arrive on the wing about July 10th, coming from south by south-west. These appear to have deposited some eggs which hatching in September produced young insects which were either frozen, or took flight August first, in a direction between south and east. No crops destroyed, the locusts having arrived late and in small numbers. Manitoba Home, N. W. T. (J. Cowie, J. P.) Produced here from the egg, hatching about June 9th. Left about the end of July, going north. Swarms also arrived on the wing, some remaining on the ground, and some passing over. From the middle of June till the end of July they came with every south-east wind, the latest remaining altogether, the earlier swarms going north. Mr. Cowie writes: " The young before taking wing marched through the settlement from S. to N., and destroyed all the crops except potatoes. Some returned ou foot going south, and some remained until able to fly." Fort Totten, Dakota. (Dr. J. B. Ferguson.) No locusts hatched here. Foreign swarms appeared July 19, coming from the north, and departing finally about July 22 or 23 ; going southward. Little damage done to crops. No eggs deposited. Dr. Ferguson writes: — The 19th of July is the date when locusts first appeared here in large numbers and alighted on the ground. Swarms were seen passing over before this date, but no note made of the exact day. Those that came on the 19th remained 3 or 4 days, and then left. It rarely happens that a swarm passes without some coming down, while others already here appear to rise and join them in the air. In this way even after the great body of locusts has passed, considerable numbers remain behind, and do not entirely disappear for from 10 to 12 days, and sometimes eveu longer. No. 4.] DAWSON — LOCUST INVASION OP 1875. 221 Woodside, Man. (Thos. Collins) Produced here from the