Besides the interglacial species found at Toronto, which have already been mentioned, there may be noted a tooth of Elephas primigenius (p. 130), a cast of which was reported by Winchell. Whether this was derived from interglacial or late Wisconsin beds is not known. Coleman, as elsewhere cited, reported the finding of remains of one of the elephants on the Iroquois beach. On the same beach have been collected antlers of reindeer (p. [244]). These animals must have lived there not earlier than the time when that beach was forming, perhaps later.
Fig. 4.—Eastern Ontario, showing limit of fresh-water beaches and marine fossils. Redrawn from Coleman.
In a buried gorge extending in a northwestern direction from the whirlpool at Niagara to the Niagara escarpment, Dr. J. W. Spencer (Bull. Geol. Amer., vol. XXI, p. 433) has discovered what he regards as deposits equivalent to the Toronto formation, while older glacial and interglacial beds are found below and more recent ones above. No fossils were met with except wood. At Amaranth have been secured considerable parts of a skeleton of Elephas primigenius (p. [130]). This elephant must have existed rather late in the Wisconsin stage. About Kingston in Frontenac County, at two places, have been secured remains of the elk (p. [235]), but lack of details as to places and conditions precludes certainty as to their geological age. The fact that they were found in shell marl is favorable to the idea that they belonged to the Pleistocene. Here may be mentioned again the bison horn of uncertain geological age which was found on the north shore of Nipissing Lake (p. [266]). In Algoma County, on the banks of Moose River, was found a part of a skull of a mastodon, but there is uncertainty whether it had been buried in interglacial deposits or in marine Champlain beds. The region in the extreme eastern end of Ontario is interesting because it furnishes a considerable fauna belonging to the Champlain stage. During the last glacial stage the region on which the Wisconsin ice-sheet was resting became depressed to such an extent that when this ice retreated beyond the St. Lawrence River, marine waters occupied the basin nearly to the eastern end of Lake Ontario and Ottawa River as far as Lake Coulonge. Coleman’s figure of the region (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XII, pp. 129–146, fig. 1) is here reproduced (fig. 4) to show the western limits of the marine waters, so far as known, and the corresponding fresh-water beach along the north shore of Lake Ontario. Figure 5 from Coleman shows how the Champlain Sea was limited on the south. Marine fossils, especially mollusks, have been found along the upper St. Lawrence as far as Brockville, Quebec, and on the opposite side of the river, in New York. On Coleman’s map the present elevations of the old beaches at important localities are marked, that at Ottawa having an elevation of 450 feet and at Coulonge 370 feet. According to Johnston, who has described the Pleistocene geology in the vicinity of Ottawa (Mem. 101, Canad. Dept. Mines, 1917), there is a point about 8 miles northwest of the city where a marine terrace is found at a height of 690 feet above sea-level. The marine beds at Ottawa are divided into the Leda clays at the base and Saxicava sands above. The former have a maximum thickness of about 200 feet, the Saxicava sands, a thickness of about 40 feet. The fossils occur mostly in the Leda clays. In 1897, Dr. H. M. Ami (Ottawa Naturalist, vol. XI, pp. 20–26), and again in 1901 (Geol. Surv. Ann. Rep., XII, G, pp. 51–56), published lists of the fossils found in the Ottawa Valley, nearly all of them in the vicinity of Ottawa. There were listed 26 species of plants, about 13 species of marine mollusks, and the following vertebrates:
- Mallotus villosus, capelin.
- Cyclopterus lumpus, lump-sucker.
- Osmerus mordax, smelt.
- Artediellus atlanticus (Cottus uncinatus), sculpin.
- Gasterosteus aculeatus, stickleback.
- Phoca vitulina, common seal (p. [22]).
- Phoca grœnlandica, Greenland seal (p. [23]).
- Tamias striatus, chipmunk.
Fig. 5.—South shore-line of ancient Champlain sea. Redrawn from Coleman.
The aquatic forms are all species existing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and along the northern Atlantic coast. The chipmunk lives at Ottawa. Specimens of feathers of birds also have been found in nodules, but the species have not been determined. The remains of the chipmunk were probably washed in by some fresh-water stream.
According to Johnston’s paper just cited, there are deposits of glacial drift underlying the marine Champlain beds, but they have furnished no fossils. The marine deposits extend up the Ottawa Valley at least as far as Coulonge Lake, and here has been found Mallotus villosus. At Welshe’s, 3 miles north of Smith’s Falls, Lanark County, have been found some remains of the humpback whale, Megaptera boöps (Dawson, Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXV, 1883, p. 200). It was met with (p. [17]) at an elevation of 440 feet above present sea-level. It appears to have been left there during the time when the Saxacava sands and gravels were being laid down (Coleman, Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XII, p. 133).