The Pleistocene of North America: and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°Hay, Oliver Perry
Science
The Pleistocene of North America: and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°
Hay, Oliver Perry
Paleontology -- North America; Paleontology -- Pleistocene; Vertebrates, Fossil
3. _Bic, Rimouski County._—In Le Naturaliste Canadien (vol. XXXVI, 1908,
p. 51), the editor, V. A. Huard, in commenting on a letter written to
him and announcing the capture of a walrus somewhere on the northern
coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, recalled an article contributed in
1869 by the former editor, a priest named Provancher (Le Naturaliste
Canad., vol. II, p. 19). This writer stated that some workmen employed
in the construction of the International Railway had discovered at Bic,
Rimouski County, Quebec, on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, a
complete skeleton of a walrus. This skeleton had a length of 13 feet. It
was found at a depth of 14 feet, in a compact clay, and at a height of
more than 100 feet above sea-level. The skeleton was deposited in the
museum of the Rimouski Seminary, but was destroyed in a fire in 1881.
It is evident that when that animal died and was buried in the clay the
land in that region stood at a level at least 100 feet lower than at
present.
Through the late Mr. L. M. Lambe, of the Canada Geological Survey, the
writer has received from Mr. W. A. Johnston, who made a special study of
the Pleistocene, information regarding the age of the clays at Bic. He
says that little can be said definitely regarding the age of the clays
in which the walrus skeleton was found. Clays belonging to the Champlain
submergence stand now at an elevation of 311 feet in that vicinity; and
marine shells occur in clays, supposed to belong to the Champlain, at an
altitude of 120 feet. There is a possibility that some of the clays in
that region are earlier than the time of the Wisconsin. Mr. Johnston
cites Guide Book No. 1, part I, pp. 77–78, of the Canada Survey, and
Dawson’s Ice Age, 1893, pp. 186–195. The first article was written by J.
W. Goldthwait. On page 921 of Logan’s Geology of Canada, 1863, it is
stated that bones of whales and of the morse have been found partially
embedded in the Leda clay in several places between Bic and Matanne,
about 60 miles farther down the river.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account