Hunting for Whales in Eastern Ontario

I expect that everyone in Eastern Ontario with an interest in geology is aware that the Champlain Sea was a brackish arm of the Atlantic Ocean that flooded the depressed St. Lawrence Lowland following the retreat of the glaciers,  that leda clay, the cause of many landslides in Eastern Ontario, was deposited in the Champlain Sea, that numerous fossil fish have been found at Green’s Creek at the east end of Ottawa in nodules in the leda clay, and that fossils of seals and whales have been found in Champlain Sea deposits.   Those people will also have visited the Canadian Museum of Nature/Victoria Museum in Ottawa, probably on numerous occasions, and will have admired the fossils from the Champlain Sea on display at the museum.  This posting expounds on the whales that have been found in the Champlain Sea, with particular emphasis on those found in Eastern Ontario.

Five species of whales, four species of seals, walrus, and numerous species of fish are known to have existed in the Champlain Sea because of fossils that have been found in Ontario, Quebec, New York State and Vermont in the sediments left by the Champlain Sea .   In a paper published in 2014, when commenting on the mammals in the Champlain Sea, Richard Harington and his co-authors stated:

“Several species of whale, particularly those adapted to cool inshore conditions, lived in the Champlain Sea. Approximately 80% of whale specimens recorded from Champlain Sea deposits are white whales. Other whale species represented are humpback, bowhead, finback, and harbor porpoise.  Seals, particularly those adapted to breeding on pack ice, such as harp and bearded , and those adapted to breeding on land-fast ice, such as ringed , also lived in the Champlain Sea. An open coastal water species, the harbor seal has likewise been found near the southern margin of the sea.  Walruses, which tend to follow the pack-ice edge, have also been reported. These marine mammal fossils suggest the former presence of Arctic to boreal waters, with sea ice generally present.”  [Scientific Names and Citations Omitted.]
   
[C. Richard Harington,  Mario Cournoyer,  Michel Chartier, Tara Lynn Fulton,  Beth Shapiro, 2014,  Brown bear (Ursus arctos) (9880 ± 35 BP) from late-glacial Champlain Sea deposits at Saint-Nicolas, Quebec, Canada, and the dispersal history of brown bears, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 2014, 51(5): 527-535,    http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2013-0220 ]
       
Below I’ve provided information on ten of the whales found in Eastern Ontario.  Where available, I’ve used the reports by those who first described the specimens.   While I’ve entitled this posting “Hunting for Whales in Eastern Ontario”  I might more accurately have used the title “Happening Upon Whales in Eastern Ontario” as only two of the fossil whale occurrences in Ontario appear to have been found by someone out looking for fossils.   (Both Walter Billings, an architect, and Dr. Mark McElhinney, a dentist, who found two of the specimens,  were active members of  The Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club.  Walter Billings in particular was well known as a collector of fossils.)  All of the rest of the fossils appeared while excavating sand and gravel, excavating clay for brick, or digging  wells.   I noticed a similar pattern when looking at the fossils of seals and walrus found in Champlain Sea sediments and the fossil whales found in the Champlain Sea deposits in Quebec, Vermont and New York State.   While a few specimens have been found when looking for fossils, the vast majority, and the most complete specimens, have been found by chance when excavating sand and gravel, excavating clay for brick, digging  wells or digging on farms.   However, I don’t expect that will stop me or anyone else from going out to look for a whale.
       

1.)  White Whale (Beluga) found at Cornwall, Ontario in 1870 

In a paper read before the Natural History Society, Montreal, on October 31, 1870  Elkanah Billings, Palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of Canada, described the finding of this fossil.  He then submitted an abstract of his talk where he mentioned:

"Several months ago, Mr. Charles Poole, of Cornwall, wrote to the Secretary of the Society that a large skeleton, resembling that of an Icthyosaurus, had been found in that neighborhood, by the men engaged in excavating clay for brick. In another letter he stated that Mr. T. S. Scott, architect, of this city, had procured the lower jaws. On receipt of this information, Mr. Billings called upon Mr. Scott, who very liberally presented the jaws to the Geological Museum. Mr. Billings then went up to Cornwall, and obtained from Mr. Poole the bones which were in his possession. These were discovered in the Postpliocene clay about sixteen feet below the surface. They are those of a small whale closely allied to the White Whale, Beluga leucas, which lives in the Northern seas, and at certain seasons abounds in the Gulf and lower parts of the St. Lawrence. The lower jaws are nearly perfect. The skull and upper jaws are much damaged and some  of the parts lost. Thirty-five of the vertebras, the two shoulder blades, most of the ribs, and a number of small bones were collected. The length of the animal was probably about fifteen feet. The lower jaws have the sockets of eight teeth upon the right side and of seven on the left. The number of teeth in the upper jaw could not be ascertained. ... The Cornwall locality is about half a mile from the railway station, sixty feet above the St. Lawrence, and over two hundred feet above the level of the sea.”
   
[Billings, Elkanah, 1870 , Canadian. Naturalist and Quarterly. Journal of  Science, vol. V, pp. 438-439)     https://archive.org/details/canadiannaturali05natu ]

Thirty-seven years later J.F. Whiteaves commented, when reviewing the White Whale specimens in the collection of the Geological Survey of Canada, that “By far the most perfect of these is the fine specimen from Cornwall in the museum of the Geological Survey  of Canada. It is a nearly perfect skeleton of an adult individual,  which, as now mounted, is a little more than twelve feet in length, though a few of the vertebrae are missing.” [Whiteaves, J.F., 1907,  Notes on the Skeleton of a White Whale,  Ottawa Naturalist, vol. xx, No. 11, pp. 214-216 page 214 ]

2.)  Humpback Whale found north of Smiths Falls, Lanark County, Ontario in 1882

 

 J. W. Dawson of McGill University in Montreal described the finding of this fossil as follows:

“These [bones]  were found, as I am informed by Archer Baker, Esq., General Superintendent of the Canada Pacific Railway, "in a ballast pit, at Welshe's, on the line of the C. P. Railway, three miles north of Smith's Falls, and thirty-one miles north of the St. Lawrence River, in the Township of Montague, County of Lanark. They occurred in gravel at a depth of 30 feet from the surface, and about 50 feet back from the original face of the pit.
... The bones secured consist of two vertebrae and a fragment of another with a portion of a rib, and others are stated to have been found. They are in good preservation, but have become white and brittle through the loss of their animal matter. On comparison with such remains of whales as exist in the Peter Redpath Museum, and with the figures and descriptions of other species, I have little doubt that they belong to the Humpback whale,... The larger of the two vertebrae, a lumbar one, has the centrum eleven inches in transverse diameter, and is seven inches in length. The smaller, a dorsal, is ten inches in its greater diameter, and four in length. Through the kindness of Mr. Baker the specimens have been deposited in the Peter Redpath Museum”

[ J. W. Dawson, 1883, On portions of the Skeleton of a Whale from gravel on the line of the Canada Pacific Railway, near Smith's Falls, Ontario, American Journal of Science, ser. 3, vol. XXV, p. 200)   https://archive.org/details/mobot31753002153036    The Canadian Naturalist and Quarterly Journal of Science, New Series,  Volume 10 pages 385-387
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/31810#page/405/mode/1up    ]
   

3.) White Whale (Beluga) found at Williamstown, Glengarry County,  about 10 miles north-east of Cornwall in 1901

Oliver P. Hay, of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, described the finding of this fossil as follows:
“ In Professor Perkins's paper just cited it is stated that Edward Ardley, assistant curator at Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montreal, had found here a few bones of a white whale, the hyoid, a few phalanges, and rib fragments. ... . From Mr. Ardley, through Mr. Arthur Willey, curator of Redpath Museum, the present writer has learned that these bones were dug up from a depth of 14 feet, in a well sunken in the Leda clay. Under the surface soil was a band of sandy clay containing shells of Saxicava and Mya. Beneath this was a stiff blue clay showing stratification and containing shells of Leda.”

[Oliver P. Hay, 1923,  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 degrees,  Published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C., 499 pages, at pages 17-18.
https://archive.org/stream/pleistoceneofnor00hayouoft#page/16/mode/2up

4.) White Whale (Beluga) found in Pakenham Township, Lanark County  in 1906

J.F. Whiteaves,  staff  palaeontologist with of the Geological Survey of Canada, described the finding of this fossil as follows:   

“On the 5th of September, 1906, a skeleton, which is obviously  that of a very young individual of this same White Whale or Beluga, was found by Mr. Patrick Cannon, while digging a well on his farm, on lot 21 of the 11th concession of Pakenham, Lanark Co., Ont. The Rev. J. R. H. Warren, of the village of Pakenham, informs the writer that this skeleton was embedded in blue clay, fourteen feet below the surface, and that only a portion of it was dug out. In digging the well, he adds, some depth of blue clay was first bored through, then a mixture of clay and shells, in which the skeleton was found, was struck, and the excavation ended in more blue clay. The well has since been incased or lined with stone, and now contains a considerable depth of water, so that it may be somewhat difficult to dig out the remainder of the skeleton.

The bones that have been exhumed so far, from this excavation, with samples of the mixture of clay and shells in which they were found, have been kindly lent to the writer by Mr. Cannon. The former consist of a nearly perfect skull (with only a few of the teeth missing) and one of the tympanic bones, with most of the cervical vertebrae and three of the dorsals with some of their epiphyses. Or, as interpreted more definitely by Mr. L. M. Lambe, ot the skull, the left tympanic, the atlas, axis, third, fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae, and the second, third and fourth dorsal, with some of their epiphyses.”

[Whiteaves, J.F., 1907,  Notes on the Skeleton of a White Whale,  Ottawa Naturalist, vol. xx, No. 11, pp. 214-216 page 215    https://archive.org/details/ottawanaturalist20otta ]
   
Photographs of the Cranium (top view showing the blow hole) and mandibles for the White Whale (Beluga) found near Pakenham are Figure 28 at page 45 in the Royal Ontario Museum’s 1984  publication by Frances J.E. Wagner entitled Fossils of Ontario Part 2: Macroinvertebrates and Vertebrates of the Champlain Sea  https://archive.org/details/fossilsofontario02bolt

A photograph of the Cranium and lower jaws of the whale found near Pakenham  appears as Figure 5 at page 53 in Harington, C.R.  and Occhietti, S., 1988, Inventaire systématique et paléoécologie des mammifères marins de la Mer de Champlain (fin du Wisconsinien) et de ses voies d’accès,  Géographie physique et Quaternaire, vol. 42, n̊ 1, 1988, p. 45-64.
http://www.erudit.org/revue/gpq/1988/v42/n1/032708ar.html?vue=resume

In addition, a photograph of the Cranium and lower jaws appears in a history of Pakenham published by Verna Ross McGiffin (V. R. McGiffin, 1963, Pakenham, Ottawa Valley Village, 1823-1860, Mississippi Publishers, Pakenham, Ontario.)   

5.)  White Whale (Beluga) found in Ottawa East, Carleton County [Now falling within the City of Ottawa, Ontario]

In 1910, Mr. Lawrence M. Lambe, paleontologist with  the Geological Survey Branch of the Department of Mines, Canada reported  that Mr. A. Penfold  had presented to the Survey a caudal vertebra of Delphinapterus leucas, Pallas  which he had found at Ottawa East, at a depth of 25 feet, while digging a well.

[ L. M. Lambe, 1910, Summary Report of the  Geological Survey Branch of the Department of Mines, Canada. for 1909, at  p. 273  https://archive.org/details/summaryreportofg1909geol ]

6.)  White Whale (Beluga) found in 1913 at  Nepean Township, Carleton County [Now falling within the City of Ottawa, Ontario] 

In 1914, Mr. Lawrence M. Lambe of the Canadian Geological Survey, stated that  Walter Billings of Ottawa had presented to the Survey a caudal vertebra of Delphinapterus leucas found in Pleistocene gravel on lot 15, concession 5, of Nepean township. The locality is near Jock River, a stream which flows northeasterly and enters Rideau River about 11 miles south of Ottawa.
   
[Lawrence. M. Lambe, 1914, Summary Report of the  Geological Survey Branch of the Department of Mines, Canada. for 1913, at page 299.]
   

7.)  White Whale (Beluga) found in 1924 at a Sand Pit 5 miles South of Ottawa [Now falling within the City of Ottawa, Ontario]

Charles Mortram Sternberg, Assistant Biologist (the equivalent to a curator) to the National Museum of Canada, mentions:

“Scapula and four vertebrae of D. leucas from sand pits, 5 miles south of Ottawa, presented by Dr. Mark McElhinney in 1924.”

[C. M. Sternberg, 1951, White Whale and Other Pleistocene Fossils From the Ottawa Valley,
National Museum of Canada Bulletin 123, pages 259-261 at 259.]

8.)  Two White Whales (Belugas) found in 1948 at a Sand Pit  near Uplands Airport 5 miles South of Ottawa [Now falling within the City of Ottawa, Ontario]

Charles Mortram Sternberg, Assistant Biologist to the National Museum of Canada, mentions:

“On June 19, 1948, Mr. S. G. Carr-Harris telephoned the National Museum that the skull and partial skeleton of some fossil had been dug out of the R.R. Foster sand pit near Uplands Airport, about five miles south of Ottawa, by Mr. J. B. Rolland, the shovel operator.  The specimen, which proved to be the skeleton of a White Whale (Delphinapterus leucas), consisted of a splendidly preserved skull (minus lower mandibles), 20 vertebrae, several ribs, a scapula, humerus, radius, and various other bone fragments.  It is probable that the complete skeleton  was present originally but that part of it was removed with excavated material before the specimen was discovered.   The specimen was preserved near the center of a thick bed of fairly clear sand.  A few days later the lower jaw of a smaller individual was recovered from the same locality.”

[C. M. Sternberg, 1951, White Whale and Other Pleistocene Fossils From the Ottawa Valley,
National Museum of Canada Bulletin 123, pages 259-261 at 259.]

9.) Bowhead Whale Found at White Lake, near Arnprior, Renfrew County, Ontario in 1975   

This whale was found in by Clyde Kennedy who was looking for campsites of Paleo-Indians.   In the summer of 1975 he identified the sand and gravel deposit owned by John Hanson of White Lake village as an ancient shore surface that was worth investigating.   In an article published in 1977 in the Arnprior newspaper The Chronicle he mentions “Confirmation of this conclusion came on October 10,1975 when Allan Jones, while taking sand from the pit about eight miles southwest of Arnprior, found bones from the right fore fin of a bowhead whale.  Allan found some of the bones at the pit and others the next day when he was spreading sand he had delivered to a schoolyard in Renfrew.  Identification of the bones was made by Dr C R Harington, National Museum of Natural Sciences... [who ] told me the bones were from a mature bowhead whale, the mammal was probably between 40 to 65 feet long and weighed between 40 and 70 tons.” 

Further bones were found at the pit in 1977.  In the article Clyde Kennedy states “ I learned that Terry Bandy, while loading sand at the Hanson Pit on September 23 this year, had found three pieces of a large bone. His father, Glen Bandy, a Glasgow Station area farmer, kindly showed me the pieces, which totalled about seven feet in length.  I informed Dr Harington who visited White Lake with me and identified the find as a whale rib.  It was once longer than seven feet for a missing piece was not found... [On a subsequent visit, with further digging, we found and] completed the exposure of the nine-foot bone with trowels and paint brushes. I guessed it was a whale jawbone, which was later confirmed by Dr Harington.”
       
[Clyde C.  Kennedy, Nov 30, 1977, Whales bones found, The Chronicle.
http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/archeo/kichisibi/k300c-clydeswhale.shtml ]

Photographs showing the bones being dug up can be seen in this article.

A drawing of the skeleton of the bowhead whale showing the parts recovered at White Lake  appears as Figure 7 in Harington and Occhietti, 1988, at page 55.

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A Map Showing  Localities Where Fossils of Whales, Seals and Walrus have been Found in Champlain Sea Deposits

On the following map I’ve plotted the localities where fossils of whales, walrus and seals  have been found in Champlain Sea sediments.   I believe that I’ve plotted all of the whales and walrus. There were numerous fossil seals found at locations in Ottawa and Montreal, and I may not have them all.

 That map is based on Figure 4 that is found in the following paper:
Steadman, D.W., Kirchgasser, W.T. and Pelkey, D.M., 1994. A Late Pleistocene white whale (Delphinapterus leucas) from Champlain Sea sediments in northern New York, p. 339-345. In E. Lending, ed., Studies in Stratigraphy and Paleontology in Honor of Donald W. Fisher. New York State Museum Bulletin 481, 380 p.    Their drawing is said to be modified from the following two papers:

C. R. Harington et Serge Occhietti, 1988, Inventaire systématique et paléoécologie des mammifères marins de la Mer de Champlain (fin du Wisconsinien) et de ses voies d’accès,  Géographie physique et Quaternaire, vol. 42, n̊ 1, 1988, p. 45-64.
http://www.erudit.org/revue/gpq/1988/v42/n1/032708ar.html?vue=resume

C. R. Harington,  1989, Marine Mammals of the Champlain Sea, and the problem of whales in Michigan. Geological Association of Canada, Special Paper 35: 225-240.

I have not yet been able to find Harington, 1989.

Steadman,, Kirchgasser, and Pelkey’s Figure 4 plots fossil records of the White Whale (Beluga) from the Champlain Sea, shows the shoreline of the Champlain Sea at its maximum extent,  overlying major modern bodies of water including Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, the Ottawa River and Lake Champlain.  To their map I’ve added the localities of the occurrences of the Humpback Whale, Bowhead Whale, Finback Whale,  Harbour Porpoise and seals referenced in Harington, C.R. and Occhietti, S., 1988.

I also added the occurrences of Walrus fossils found at Saint Julienne de Montcalm, Quebec  and St. Nicolas, Quebec mentioned in:

M.A. Bouchard, C.R. Harington and J.-P. Guilbault, 1993,  First evidence of walrus (Odobenus rosmarus L.) in Late Pleistocene Champlain Sea sediments, Quebec, Can. J. Earth Sci. 30, 1715-1719   http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e93-150

Jean-Pierre Guilbault, 2013, New Acquisition: A walrus skull from St. Nicolas, Bulletin of the MPE, March 2013, pages 1-2  http://www.mpe-fossils.org/resources/Bulletin_MPE_April_9_2013.pdf


I also added the additional occurrences of  White Whales  referenced in:
C. Richard Harington, Serge Lebel, Maxime Paiement, Anne de Vernal, 2006,  Félix: a Late Pleistocene White Whale (Delphinapterus Leucas) Skeleton From Champlain Sea Deposits at Saint-Félix-de-Valois, Québec, Géographie physique et Quaternaire, Volume 60, No,  2,  p. 183-198    http://id.erudit.org/revue/gpq/2006/v60/n2/016828ar.html?lang=es

To my knowledge Félix, found north of Montreal, and Charlotte, the state fossil of Vermont, are the only whale fossils from the Champlain Sea  that are referred to by a person’s first name.

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario   

Dr. Edward Van Cortlandt, M.D., (1805-1875) of Bytown and Ottawa, Surgeon, Field Naturalist, Museum Curator and Amateur Geologist

    “ This gentleman is well known in scientific and other circles as a mineralogist, geologist, botanist and physician of considerable repute in the Province, and as one who has done much to advance the interests of the Ottawa country, in the capital of which he has resided for many years. ... He has, at great expense, had constructed the best private archaeological and geological museum in Canada, an object of great attraction to all who visit Ottawa; ” 

    ( Henry James Morgan, 1862, Sketches of Celebrated Canadians: And Persons Connected with Canada,  Hunter and Rose, Co., London, 779 pages at page 750)

In earlier postings I mentioned three amateur geologists  who were instrumental in collecting mineral and fossil specimens in Upper Canada/Canada West in the years preceding Confederation and who provided assistance to the Geological Survey of Canada.  These were Dr. James Wilson, M.D.,  (1798-1881) of Perth, Sheriff Andrew Dickson (1797 - 1868) of Pakenham and Dr. Andrew Fernando Holmes, M.D.,  (1797 -1860) of Montreal. 

Another individual who helped by collecting specimens and educating the populace on geology  was Dr. Edward Van Cortlandt, M.D., (1805-1875)  of Bytown/Ottawa.    Edward Van Cortlandt (sometimes spelt van Cortland or van Courtland or Vancortlandt) was born in Newfoundland to a military family.   Later his family moved to Quebec.   He studied medicine with the military in Quebec and later in London, England where he passed the examinations of the Apothecaries Hall and Royal College of Surgeons.  He arrived in Bytown in 1832 as the medical officer for the troops, before setting up in private practice (while continuing his association with the military).  He practiced medicine in Bytown and Ottawa for 43 years until his death in 1875.  His funeral took place with full military honours.

Dr. Van Cortlandt is generally considered to have been the best physician in the Bytown/Ottawa area of his era, was known as a friend of the poor,  but appears to have had a blunt/brusque manner.   He was a true field naturalist and had  interests in geology, archeology and botany, and wrote articles and gave talks on those subjects.     He maintained a  museum in  his home with collections of minerals, fossils, Indian artifacts, and birds and animals that he had shot, that was considered to be one of the best in Canada.  He was an active member of the Bytown Mechanics Institute, the Bytown Mechanics' Institute and Athenaeum , the Silurian Society of Ottawa, and the Ottawa Natural History Society.   In addition to maintaining the museum in his own home, for at least a six year period he was the curator of the museum of the Ottawa Natural History Society. 

 An obituary published in the local press on his death mentions:

“The Doctor is considered to be the first physician in medical skill in this part of the country.  He was a man of quick perceptions, and rather a blunt manner but underneath lay a warm heart to the poor, of which his talent was always at their command.   Another characteristic of the man was in what he believed to be his duty, he feared not the face of man.  One instance of the above was a letter published by us in the “Banner,” some years back against the County Fathers for their treatment of prisoners in the jail, termed Calcutta Black Hole. The poor have lost a warm friend and Ottawa has lost her best physician.”

(Quoted in Andrew Wilson, 1875, A History of Old Bytown and Vicinity, Now the City of Ottawa, at page 58)

In 1903, Dr.  H. Beaumant Small described Dr. Van Cortlandt as follows:

“Dr. Van, as he was generally known, acquired a large practice, and his reputation spread far and wide.   ... He was odd and eccentric in his manner and his dress – brusque, sharp and even rough in his speech. ... He was impetuous and quick-tempered; ever ready to imagine a slight and equally prepared to resent a fancied grievance.  Beneath the rough exterior there was kind and sympathetic nature, and many instances were recited of his kindness and generosity to the poor.  He himself worked long and hard, yet acquired but little of this world’s wealth. ... My own distinct recollections are of his rapid and sprightly walk, and his habit of snatching boys caps as he passed them by...
    ... He was the first surgeon to the General Hospital, and had full charge of that institution for many years.  He was consulting surgeon at the Protestant Hospital, and held that position at the time of his death.  He was surgeon to the gaol, coroner and surgeon to the field battery.
     In addition to his professional reputation, he was known as a geologist of marked ability, and contributed papers and lectures on the subject.  He studied the mineralogy and paleontology of this district, and accumulated a really valuable collection, for which he had fitted up a room in his residence.”

(Dr. H. Beaumont Small, 1905, Medical Memoirs of Bytown, An Address delivered  before the Ottawa Medico-Chirurgical Society, Nov. 5, 1903, Montreal Medical Journal 34, No. 8: 549-560 at pages 556-557).
http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_05178_206/2?r=0&s=1
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/

Because he was an influential citizen, there is a fair amount written about Dr. Van Cortlandt.   The best description of his life is provided in a fifteen page pamphlet entitled “Dr. Edward Van Cortlandt Surgeon, 1805-1875" written by Margaret E. Moffatt and published in 1986 by The Historical Society of Ottawa .    She mentions that it was Dr. Van Cortlandt that alerted the authorities to the 1834 outbreak of Cholera in Bytown, and that in 1847 when a typhus epidemic broke out in Bytown Dr.  Van Cortlandt was one of the physicians who looked after the diseased immigrants.  She also points out that “In several issues of the Bytown Gazette, starting in January 12, 1836, Dr. Van Cortlandt placed an advertisement stating that he would vaccinate for small pox, free of charge.  He was thus one of the first of our public-spirited physicians trying to persuade the people of Bytown to take advantage of medical advancements.”

Dr. Van Cortlandt’s Lectures and Papers

Above I mentioned that Dr. Van Cortlandt was an active member of the Bytown Mechanics Institute, the Bytown Mechanics' Institute and Athenaeum,  the Silurian Society of Ottawa, and the Ottawa Natural History Society.    He gave lectures to each of those bodies.
               
Dr. Van Cortlandt’s geological papers that survive are:
   
An epitome of a lecture on Ottawa productions –  delivered before the Bytown Mechanics' Institute and Athenaeum on Tuesday, November 15, 1853,
1853 - Published under the Auspices of the Institute, The Citizen, Bytown
https://archive.org/details/cihm_55512
1853 - Published in The Canadian Journal of Industry, Science and Art, Volume II, pages 112-6
1854 - Published by George Sparks, Bookseller, Montreal with the title The Productions of the Ottawa District of Canada   https://archive.org/details/cihm_35799

Observations on the Building Stone of the Ottawa Country  –  an Abridgement of a Lecture
Delivered before the Ottawa Silurian Society, the 15th November, 1858 - Published under the auspices of the Ottawa Silurian Society, and by order of the city council.

https://archive.org/details/cihm_47986
   
An Essay on the Native Compounds and Metallurgy of Iron, Especially in Connection With The Ottawa Valley;  read before the Natural History Society of Ottawa, on Friday, December 28th,
 1866
1867 - published by The Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa     https://archive.org/details/cihm_40500

The lecture on Ottawa Productions is interesting.   Not only did it enjoy three printings, but it discusses iron deposits in the Ottawa valley, graphite deposits in Hull and in Eastern Ontario, Galena deposits near Kingston and on the Ottawa, native copper deposits in Canada,  briefly mentions other refractory materials and minerals, and describes various trees of the Ottawa.

His lecture entitled  Observations on the Building Stone of the Ottawa Country discusses granite, syenite, Potsdam sandstone, Chazy sandstone, Calciferous Sand Rock, limestone, and marble.

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A number of Dr. Van Cortlandt’s articles and speeches on other topics have been preserved and are available, including:

Notice of an Indian Burial Ground, The Canadian Journal of Industry, Science and Art, 1853, volume I, pages 160-161. This describes his two day dig in 1843 close to Bytown and the items that he found including bones, a few implements and weapons.

Fishes of the Ottawa, a Digest of an essay on the fishes of the Ottawa River, and its tributaries and some of the contiguous lakes – read before the Natural History Society on Friday, 24th November, 1865.   Ottawa Citizen, Nov. 29, 1865. 
 [He is also suspected to have written:  Notes on the lakes and lake fishes in the vicinity of Ottawa, Canada West No. 1 — Minnow lake by a member of the Isaac Walton Club (Dr. Edward Van Cortlandt?) Ottawa Citizen, June 21, 1865.]

An Essay on Entozoa, read before the Ottawa Natural History Society on Friday, 24th of February, 1865    https://archive.org/details/cihm_23265

Other lectures that he gave, which are no longer available, are:

The Herpetology of the Ottawa - A  Zoological Lecture in 1865before the Mechanic’s Institute and Athenaeum  by Dr. Van Courtlandt  [Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians.]

The Phenomena of Vegetation, a lecture on March 15, 1853 before the Bytown Mechanic’s Institute and Athenaeum.

In addition to lectures given to the institutes of Ottawa Dr. Van Cortlandt gave lectures before medical associations and to the troops at the barracks at Ottawa.  For example, he delivered an address on Entozoa on September 15, 1870 at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Medical Association in the City Ottawa, Province of Ontario
[Canada Medical Journal and Monthly Record of Medical and Surgical Science, Volume 7, 1871, at  Page 133]       

He also wrote numerous letters on various topics.    He was one of the first to write on acid rain. In a recent book, Don Nixon comments:

“Dr. Van Cortlandt predicted rust staining in 1860, after he saw that some of the stone that was being selected [for the Parliament Buildings] contained ferrous and ferric oxides, ... In what must have been one of the earliest references to acid rain he wrote to the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen ‘as rain water and the atmosphere are more or less charged with acid, it is greatly to be feared from this cause alone, that the iron spots which permeate the stone will run, and not only irreparably disfigure the front of this otherwise magnificent structure ...’ ”

[Nixon, Don, 2012, The Other Side of the Hill, Don Nixon Consulting Inc., Carleton Place, Ontario at page 303]

Another interesting contribution was a submission to the Commission Appointed to Enquire into the Condition of Navigable Streams.   Professor Jamie Benidickson noted that “Dr. E. Van Cortland, the city of Ottawa’s health officer, criticized the threefold impact of lumber mill refuse on spawning grounds, on navigation and on public health. Notwithstanding limitations in the scientific foundations on which it rested, this was a rare early attempt to consolidate a range of community concerns over industrial interference with water quality.”
[Benidickson, Jamie, 2010, Cleaning Up after the Log Drivers’ Waltz : Finding the Ottawa River Watershed, Les Cahiers de droit, Volume 51, Number 3-4, September-December 2010, p. 729-748]

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Dr. Van Cortlandt’s Geological Specimens and Assistance to the Geological Survey of Canada

Dr. van Cortlandt is remembered today principally for the “cabinet” (i.e. museum) in his home and the archeological specimens from his collection that are now found in museums in Canada (principally the McCord Museum and the Redpath Museum, both in Montreal).  He is also mentioned in connection with archeological specimens from the “cabinet” of the Ottawa Natural History Society that he curated which later found there way into the collection of the Geological Survey of Canada and later the Canadian Museum of Civilization –  now the Canadian Museum of History.   The  geological specimens in his cabinet were also quite stunning.

There are three references to fossils from Dr. Van Cortlandt’s cabinet  in papers published by Elkanah Billings.   Note that the third fossil is named after Dr. Van Cortlandt.

Comarocystites Punctatus
“Dr. E. Van Cortlandt has kindly sent me from his cabinet two of the best specimens of C. Punctatus that I have yet seen, both of which have both of which have the mouth furnished with six valves, and it thus appears that the number is as variable as it is in the Crinoid Caryocrinus ornatus” 

[E. Billings, 1858, On the Cystitdeae of the Lower Silurian Rocks of Canada, in
Figures and Descriptions of Canadian Organic Remains,  Decade III.  Plate V, Geological Survey of Canada] 
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Glyptocrinus Ramulosus, Billings
...
“A highly interesting specimen in the cabinet of Dr. Van Cortlandt of the city of Ottawa, consists of the inside of a cup two inches and a-half in length  and one inch and seven-eighths in diameter, at the base of the free arms.  It had been completely embedded in the stone, but by some means the body has been completely extracted, leaving all the plates lining the cavity in their natural position.”



[E. Billings, 1857, Report for the Year 1856 of E. Billings, Esq., Palaeontologist addressed to Sir William E. Logan, Provincial Geologist, Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress
For the Years 1853-54-55-56 at page 259
E. Billings, 1859, On the Crinodeae of the Lower Silurian Rocks of Canada, in Figures and Descriptions of Canadian Organic Remains,  Decade IV, pages 57- 58,  plate. VII, figs. 2a-f; plate VIII, figs. la-e , Geological Survey of Canada ]

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Carabocrinus vancortlandti, Billings
   
“The species is dedicated to Dr. E. Vancortlandt, of the City of Ottawa, whose zeal in the advancement of science has been productive of many beneficial results. The only specimen known belongs to his cabinet, and has been kindly communicated by him to us for
description.”

Plate II. Figure 4 exhibits a view of the posterior side of the specimen, and is provided below:

Locality and formation. — Trenton limestone ; Township of McNab, near Arnprior.

[Billings, E, 1859, On the Crinoideae of the Lower Silurian Rocks of Canada, Figures and Descriptions of Canadian Organic Remains. Decade IV,  Geological Survey of Canada, page 32, Plate II, Figure 4. ]

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Sir William Logan thanked Dr. van Cortlandt for his assistance to the Survey as follows:

“I have in addition to express our obligations to many persons who have either presented specimens of Canadian organic remains to the Survey, or lent them to the palaeontologist for comparison or description. ... Dr. E. vancortlandt ... of Ottawa;” 

[Logan, W.A., 1863, Geology of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress from Its Commencement to 1863;  Preface, pages xii-xiii]

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Sir William Dawson, in a Lecture of the Popular Course of Montreal Natural History Society, winter of 1857-58, mentions a number of geological collections that benefitted him, including the collections of Dr. Holmes, Dr. Wilson of Perth, Rev. Mr. Bell, Sheriff Dickson,  Dr. Van Cortlandt and the Silurian Society of Ottawa.

[Dawson, W., 1858, Things to be Observed in Canada, and especially in Montreal and its Vicinity,  The Journal of Education for Lower Canada, Second Volume, page 40 at 43
Dawson, W., 1859, Things to be Observed in Canada, and especially in Montreal and its Vicinity, The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, Volume III, page 1 at pages 10 and 11.]

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Dr. Henri-Marc Ami, Assistant Paleontologist to the Geological Survey of Canada,  also mentioned Dr. Van Cortlandt’s collection on two occasions.  First he commented on fossils from the Trenton limestone, as follows:

“Trenton Formation – The very numerous and highly fossiliferous exposures of this formation about Ottawa, from which the late Mr. E. Billings,  the late Dr. Van Cortlandt, and many members of the Field Naturalists’ Club obtained a splendid series of fossils... prove still a rich hunting ground for palaeontologist.”

[Ami, Henri M. 1884, Report of the Geological Section for the Season of 1883, Ottawa Field Naturalists’ Club, Transactions No. 5, page 118 at 119]

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Second, he commented on Dr. Van Cortlandt’s specimens from the Pleistocene deposits, as follows:
          
“The collections of the late Dr. E. Van Cortland show that he also devoted considerable attention to these interesting deposits, ...”

[ H. M. Ami,  1887, The Great Ice Age and Subsequent Formations at Ottawa, Ontario.
The Ottawa Naturalist, The  Transactions of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club.
Vol. III., page 65 at page 66]

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Dr. Van Cortlandt’s Influence on David Ross McCord

Dr. Van Cortlandt’s cabinet, with its archaeological and geological specimens, is said by a number of sources to have been an object of great attraction to those  who visited Ottawa.  His collection is said by at least two sources to have influenced David Ross McCord, who in 1919, presented his extensive collection of artifacts to McGill University.  In 1921 the McCord National Museum was opened to house the collection. 

Moira T. McCaffrey writes:

“At the age of fourteen, David had an experience that may have marked his life forever.  As a reward for good conduct and prizes obtained at school, he was invited to accompany his father on a steamer trip to Ottawa.   While there, they visited [his father’s] schoolmate Dr. Edward VanCortlandt. He showed them“his cabinet,” which was crammed with archaeological artifacts, and promised to aid David with his geological studies.”

[Moira T. McCaffrey, 1999, Rononshonni - The Builder: David Ross McCord’s Ethnographic Collection, in Collecting Native America, 1870-1960, Edited  By Shepard Krech III and Barbara A. Hail,   Published by the Smithsonian Institution
 https://books.google.ca/books?isbn=1588344142] 

Where Are Dr. Van Cortlandt’s Specimens Today?

Interestingly, the archaeological artifacts in Dr. Edward Van Cortlandt’s “cabinet” eventually entered the collection of McGill.   Both the 1879 and 1880 Annual Calendars of McGill College and University mention that the Ethnology  part of McGill’s  Museum of Geology and Natural History displayed “ the collection of the late Dr. Van Cortland of Ottawa, purchased from his heirs”.

It is not clear whether  the three archeological specimens in the collection of the McCord Museum
( Pot   ACC1337 ; Pipe bowl  ACC4459B ; Pipe bowl  ME937.22) with the tag line “Gift of Dr. Van Cortlandt” that  can be viewed online at
  http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/keys/collections/ 
 were part of the collection purchased by McGill from his heirs.

It is also not clear whether McGill  purchased any of  his fossil, mineral and rock specimens.

At least two specimens collected by Dr. Van Cortlandt are in the collection of the Geological Survey of Canada.   Percy Raymond, Paleontologist, Geological Survey of Canada, mentions that one of the prizes of  Dr. Van Cortlandt’s collection, which he (Raymond) identifies as a new species and names Lebetodiscus Loriformus,  was by 1915 in the collection of the Museum of the Geological Survey, as follows:

Lebetodiscus Loriformus, Raymond

“This specimen has long been knows to the collectors about Ottawa as one of the prizes of Dr. Van Cortlandt’s collection. (Now in the Museum of the Geological Survey, No. 1414).    It  has always been considered as an abnormal, long-rayed specimen  of Agelacrinites dicksoni, and there can be no doubt that it is  very closely related to that species, but since it forms one of  the "connecting links" with the species of the later formations,  I propose to give it a new name. It may be described briefly  as a Lebetodiscus with rays so long that each one nearly touches its neighbor, all rays contra-solar, and equally spaced, the outer border of small plates narrow, supra-oral structure apparently  as in L. dicksoni. This species is believed to be ancestral to the very long rayed forms for which Hall erected the genus Streptaster.

The holotype is 23 mm. in greatest diameter, and is from the Trenton at Ottawa, Ontario. Probably from the "Cystid beds," about 180 feet below the top of the formation. It is No.1414 in the Victoria Memorial Museum.”

[Raymond, Percy E. 1915, Revision of the Canadian Species of “Agelacrinites”, The Ottawa Naturalist, Volume XXIX, pages 53 -62  at 56, Plate I, Figure 6]

This is the photo of the Holotype from Raymond's paper.

Lawrence Lambe, Assistant Palaeontologist to the Geological Survey,  when discussing the coral Protarea Vetusta, Hall, mentions that it “occurs in the Trenton formation at and in the vicinity of Ottawa, Ont. ... The specimens in the possession of the Geological Survey were collected at Ottawa by Dr. Van Cortlandt, at Ottawa, by H. M. Ami, 1882, ...”

[Lambe, Lawrence M., 1899, A Revision of the Genera and Species of Canadian Palaeozoic Corals, Contributions to Canadian Palaeontology, Volume IV, Part I, Geological Survey of Canada at page 90]




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Dr. Van Cortlandt’s Influence on the Rocks Used to Construct Canada’s Parliament Buildings  

       
An intriguing  piece of information that I found in my research is that Dr. Van Cortlandt may have influenced the choice of stone used to construct the exterior of Canada’s Parliament Buildings.   I have deliberately used the word “may” because there is some confusion surrounding the exact nature of Dr. Van Cortlandt’s contribution.  

I suspect that everyone is aware that the primary stone used to construct the exterior walls of the Parliament Buildings is Nepean sandstone, a buff coloured sandstone.  Some will also be aware that Potsdam sandstone, a reddish sandstone, is used for the  window and door trims of the Library of Parliament,  that Ohio sandstone is used for much of the remainder of the trim, and that the cornerstone is white marble from Pontiac County, Quebec.   Very little limestone was used in the construction of the Parliament Buildings.   [For ease of reference I’ve used the terms Nepean sandstone and Potsdam sandstone the way the terms are being used for the ongoing restoration of the Parliament Buildings.]
   
One of the first sources that I found linking  Dr. Van Cortlandt and the stones of the Parliament Buildings is the online Dictionary of Canadian Biography which mentions that:     “He published, ... in 1860, a significant brochure entitled Observations on the building stone of the Ottawa country. In the latter, Van Cortlandt claims to have earlier called to the attention of Lord Elgin  the location of the stone from which the parliament building was constructed.”
[Courtney C. J. Bond, “VAN CORTLANDT, EDWARD,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed February , 2015, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/van_cortlandt_edward_10E.html. ]

Another much earlier source that credits Dr. Van Cortlandt is Henry James Morgan who commented: “He was the first to point out the locality of the stone with which the parliamentary buildings are being erected. To this he drew the attention of the Earl of Elgin, a circumstance which tended, perhaps more than anything else, to give to Ottawa favourable publicity.”

[ Henry James Morgan, 1862, Sketches of Celebrated Canadians: And Persons Connected with Canada,  Hunter and Rose, Co., London, 779 pages at page 750.]  
      
Nevertheless, when I looked at Dr. Van Cortlandt’s own writings, I was left in doubt.  The first clues are found in the text of Dr. Van Cortlandt’s paper entitled Observations on the Building Stone of the Ottawa Country  –  a Lecture delivered before the Ottawa Silurian Society of Ottawa on the 15th November, 1858.  (Perhaps 1859? The date is changed in pen on the cover.)  In the text of his paper, when covering sandstone, he does discuss what we would now call Nepean sandstone, but he discounts it as a building stone because it is “so extremely dense that no tool can be tempered sufficiently to work it”, though he does conclude that “This stone exists on both sides of the Ottawa in Templeton, Stony Swamp and various other situations in inexhaustible quantities, and in some instances advantageously stratified.”  Much later in his paper Dr. Van Cortlandt , when discussing Trenton Limestone, draws attention to an outcrop of a dark limestone of a “very superior compact description” below Mr. Blythe’s Cabinet warehouse, and continues: “I was the first person to call who sent a specimen of this stone, together with one of sandstone of a lightest green colour, hitherto unnoticed by the Board of Works, and who called their attention to them.  If it is discovered on further examination and investigation to realize my expectations, and is adjudged worthy of consideration as a building stone, and deserves a place in the new Parliamentary buildings, I shall be rewarded amply in knowing that I have been the humble instrument of saving several thousand pounds of public money since this stone is on public property.”

The second clue is in the Postcript to Dr. Van Cortlandt’s paper, where he states:
“Since these pages were sent to press, the author has had the gratification of finding that the most proximate favourable locality pointed out by him, has been selected for procuring a portion of the stone to be used in the new Parliament Buildings, and deems it requisite to call the attention of the proper authorities to the paramount necessity which exists...for exercising care and caution in the selection of the material.  It is a fact well knows to geologist, that the Trenton Limestone is frequently rendered more or less objectionable as a building stone, if indescriminatley selected ... Both these attributes are clearly illustrated in the stone at the base of the promontary below Mr. Blythe’s...”.

I understand the references in the text of the paper and in the postscript to mean that Trenton Limestone from the locality identified by Dr. Van Cortlandt would be used to construct the Parliament Buildings.   This  makes sense when you realize that it was initially intended to construct the Parliament Buildings out of limestone.   Later, is was decided to use sandstone.   However, while Dr. Van Cortlandt is taking credit for a source for  limestone,  I  note that he sent a sample of limestone and a sample of sandstone to the Board of Works.  

Interestingly, support for Dr. Van Cortlandt having  influenced the choice of Nepean Sandstone can be found in  a recent book by Dr. Don Nixon entitled The Other Side of the Hill that was published in 2012 by Don Nixon Consulting Inc. Of Carleton Place, Ontario and that is available from the Ottawa Public Library.  He mentions that an 1858 “story in the Ottawa Banner of April 22 where Dr. Van Cortlandt called public attention to the existence of a quarry of compact sandstone on Lot 24, 22nd Concession Templeton about four miles away, and said that if the stone was carefully selected quite free from iron stains that it would be in demand for the new Parliament Buildings.” and that “In November 1859, Van Cortlandt gave a lecture on building stones and showed some beautiful specimens of sandstone from Nepean, Templeton, Pembroke, and the Calumet.  It may have been that Fuller [the chief Architect for the Parliament Buildings]  attended the lecture and started thinking about sandstone because it was about that time... that he started looking for a different stone.”

[Nixon, Don, 2012, The Other Side of the Hill, Don Nixon Consulting Inc., Carleton Place, Ontario at page 78]

While Dr. Don Nixon’s research suggests that Dr. Van Cortlandt influenced the choice of Nepean sandstone as the primary stone used to construct the Parliament Buildings, the extent of his contribution is still  not clear.  However, it is clear from Dr. Nixon’s research that it was Dr. Van Cortlandt who was responsible for the selection of marble from the Portage du Fort quarry in Pontiac County, Quebec for use as the cornerstone for the Parliament Buildings.    Dr. Nixon notes that “Upon its arrival, the big block of stone was paraded up and down the streets. The wagon halted at Dr. Van Corlandt’s house, and everyone gave him three hearty cheers of appreciation.” [Nixon, Don, 2012, The Other Side of the Hill,  page 67]

Conclusion

Dr. Van Cortlandt saw many changes over his lifetime.  When he arrived at Bytown it was a small lumber town of secondary importance to Perth and there were barracks on what we now call Parliament Hill.  By the time he died Ottawa had become the nation’s capital with a population  seven times that of Perth and the Parliament Buildings had been constructed.    While it has been 140 years since his death, his name is still mentioned.  Archaeological specimens from his collection can be found in the collection of the McCord Museum and the Redpath Museum.  The fossil Carabocrinus vancortlandti, Billings is still referenced in scientific papers.   There has been recent debate in the various journals concerning the location of his dig reported in his paper  Notice of an Indian Burial Ground.   He was also years ahead of his time in predicting acid rain and the affect of industrialization on spawning grounds, on navigation and on public health.   And if he did contribute to Nepean Sandstone being used as the stone for the exterior of the Parliament Buildings, it was a lasting contribution.

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

When Magnetite is not Fe3O4

It has to be over ten years since I signed up to receive The Alchemist Newsletter from ChemWeb.com.   Over that period the newsletter has notified me of many interesting developments in many different fields.   Each issue of the newsletter provides a series of well written, short summaries of recent developments with links to the articles or press releases.  I’d encourage anyone with an interest in chemistry to sign up.   Not only is it interesting, but it’s free.

An issue of The Alchemist Newsletter from December was particularly enlightening as a summary with the  deceptive  title “Rust never sleeps” details developments in determining the atomic structure of the surface of magnetite .   Interestingly Magnetite, which I think of solely as the magnetic iron ore, has an increasingly prominent role in catalysis, hydrogen production, spintronics, and drug delivery systems.    Further, the  properties of magnetite are governed by missing iron atoms in the sub-surface layer.  The surface of magnetite is not Fe3O4 but instead  is Fe11O16.

The Alchemist Newsletter links to the following press release:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-12/vuot-tfd120314.php

That press release mentions:
“Perhaps the most surprising property of the magnetite surface is that single atoms placed on the surface, for instance gold or palladium, stay perfectly in place instead of balling up and forming a nanoparticle. This effect makes the surface an extremely efficient catalyst for chemical reactions...

Instead of a fixed structure of metal atoms with built-in oxygen atoms, one rather has to think of iron-oxides as a well-defined oxygen structure with little metal atoms hiding inside. Directly below the outermost atomic layer, the crystal structure is rearranged and some iron atoms are absent.

It is precisely above such places of missing iron atoms that other metal atoms attach. These iron-vacancy-sites are regularly spaced, and so there is always some well-defined distance between gold or palladium atoms attaching to the surface. This explains why magnetite surfaces prevent these atoms from forming clusters.”

If you are like me one of the things that you remember from your first geology course is that Magnetite has the formula Fe3O4 and that Hematite has the formula Fe2O3.   It’s a bit of a shock to think that the formulas change at the surface.

That article made me ask myself which mineral formulas I could still remember.   There were thirty-one in total (and only five were native elements).

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

Journal Reference:

R. Bliem, E. McDermott, P. Ferstl, M. Setvin, O. Gamba, J. Pavelec, M. A. Schneider, M. Schmid, U. Diebold, P. Blaha, L. Hammer, G. S. Parkinson. Subsurface cation vacancy stabilization of the magnetite (001) surface. Science, 2014; 346 (6214): 1215 DOI: 10.1126/science.1260556

A Contest to Find the Largest Glacial Erratic in Lanark County

In 2016  the Town of Perth,  Tay Valley Township, Drummond North Elmsley Township and Beckwith Township will celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the founding of the Perth Military Settlement and  the arrival of the first settlers and War of 1812 veterans to our area.

I’ve been wondering for some time now how to tie this in with Ontario Highland Tourism’s promotion of Lanark County as a geotourist destination.    After months of thought, and a few bottles of red wine,  I’ve decided that what Lanark needs is an annual contest to find the largest glacial erratic in Lanark County that has not previously been mentioned on this web site or in a scientific report or that has not previously won a prize in a similar contest.    The first contest would start in November, 2015 and will end in November 2016, with the winner and the erratic announced in December, 2016.

The beauty of this contest is that almost everyone in Lanark is blessed with glacial erratics left by the retreating glaciers.  Some farmers may use a different word than “blessed” to describe the boulders in their topsoil, but those would be the ones without an understanding and appreciation of Lanark’s glacial history.    As mentioned in previous postings, about 79 thousand years ago the Wisconsin glacial period  started, glaciers formed, advanced and retreated, and at their maximum extent covered most of Canada and extended down into the United States. Lanark County was covered by a glacier two kilometers in thickness. When the glaciers finally retreated from Eastern Ontario about 11,000 years ago they left behind ample evidence of their former presence in Lanark County including eskers, glacial till, glacial striae and glacial erratics – all to be admired and  appreciated.  

I have not yet finalized the rules, categories, number of judges, entrance form and waiver, but expect that to get the contest up and running over next summer.   The reason that I publicize it at this point is that I’m open to suggestions and welcome the help of everyone that wants to get involved.   (It is not that I’m desperate for an article for a blog posting.)

In addition to the prize for the largest erratic, I propose prizes for the winners of a number of categories:
- largest erratic on an operating farm or maple sugar bush
- largest erratic at a sand or gravel quarry
- largest erratic within a town’s boundaries
- largest erratic other than on an operating farm or maple sugar bush, at a quarry or within a town’s boundaries
- best use of an erratic in garden landscaping

There will necessarily have to be some exclusions, including.
- not underwater
- verifiable
- not previously moved.

For the benefit of those that have recently moved to Lanark County from the city, I note that
where the glacial erratic occurs with other boulders in row along a fence line, this is an obvious exclusion as the erratic has been previously moved.     I expect that some whiners are going to say that many large erratics along fence lines are too heavy to have been moved.  However, men were men and oxen were oxen when Lanark was first settled.  No stone that I have seen  is too large not to have been moved by the first settlers.     (I have to admit that I had considered adding a category ‘largest erratic along a fence line’ in order to be as inclusive as possible, but decided against this as it rewards those that have destroyed their geologic heritage.)

In addition, no one can enter that is related to one of the persons running the contest.  This is an obvious exclusion as I have some large glacial erratics on my property, and I would not want to be accused of running a contest, or finagling the categories,  merely so that one of my erratics could win.

I had considered running this contest in conjunction with the Annual Perth Fair that is held the first weekend in September, requiring that all entrants bring their erratics in for judging, much the same as people weigh in their pumpkin and gourds for largest pumpkin contests.    However, most erratics should not be moved, as this affects their scientific value.    While you would like to think that people would replace their erratics exactly where they take them from, this is unlikely to be the case.   Also, I’ve talked with some of the people that run the fair, and there is a fear that people that loose would just leave their erratics for the operators of the fair to dispose of. I see that as a real concern, and not raised merely to disassociate themselves as far as possible from the contest.  Who wants to be left with five ton boulders lying all around the place?

I suspect that some will argue that this contest unfairly gives those of Irish descent an unfair advantage.  I make that statement because eight years ago when I mentioned to my dentist in Ottawa that I had moved to Tay Valley Township in Lanark County he told me that he had been born and raised in Lanark County,  that the English had received the good land and the Irish the rocky land.  Memories run deep in Lanark County.   His family was Irish .  I can only say ‘play the hand that you are dealt.’   If this contest  does give those of  Irish descent an unfair advantage, then it is poor compensation for having farmed rocky land for 200 years. 

Some will suggest that I’m just too lazy to get out there to find the erratics myself, or that I’m just trying to drum up readers for my blog.   I have no answer for that other than to say that I have lots of glacial erratics on my own property, and I’m not interested in a reader that reads my blog only because he or she wants to win the contest.

I should mention that not all boulders are glacial erratics.  Long time residents of Perth will recall the large black boulder that for many years was a fixture on Wilson Street in front of the Perkins GM building.   That was not an erratic.   It was a gabbroic boulder with too many fresh surfaces to have been polished and transported by a glacier.   Another clue is that it was resting first  on asphalt and later on paving stones. The glaciers retreated from Perth thousands of years before that asphalt was laid down or the paving stones put in place.

A further exclusion is that the rock must not be the same as and in contact with the underlying rock.   In addition, the contest organizers will exclude all rocks that have just broken off an outcrop and rolled down the hill.   I also fear that if the contest takes off, some will be sandblasting rocks to make them look like rounded and polished glacial erratics.   Accordingly, three geologists will be needed  as scrutineers and judges to determine the winner, plus one lay person in the event of a tie.   Some will ask how you can possibly have a tie with three people as the judges.   The answer is that some geologist have more than one opinion on a subject, and some hedge their bet.   For example, Who hasn’t looked at a granitic boulder and wondered if it was granite or merely granitic gneiss?  Who hasn’t looked at an outcrop of sandstone and wondered whether it is Potsdam sandstone or March sandstone, and does anyone really care which it is?
   
Above I mentioned that excluded from the contest will be glacial erratics that were previously mentioned on this web site, in a scientific report or that have previously won a prize in a similar contest.   Those exclusions are necessary to prevent numerous people from entering the same erratics.   For those that have not read each of my blog postings, this excludes both (a) the glacial erratic, then known locally as Samson’s Shoulder Stone (and now sadly forgotten), that can be found about 11.26  kilometers east of Perth along County Road 10 (the Franktown Road if you are heading to Ottawa, and the Perth Road if you are headed to Perth) reported on in 1932  by Dr. Morley Wilson of the Geological Survey of Canada that was featured in Volume 46  of the Canadian Field-Naturalist and (b) the glacial erratics at Wheeler’s Pancake House and Sugarbush. 
           
I’ve decided against offering a monetary prize, which would only pit neighbour against neighbour, husband against wife, and fathers and mothers against their children.   Instead, the prize will be a certificate,  a photograph of the winner and his/her erratic  published in the Perth Courier, and the photograph of the annual winner on a plaque kept at the Perth Museum.   I can see the plaque now:  2016 - a photograph of a granitic or gabbroic boulder from Lanark Highlands. 
   
I realize that there could be a problem with the contest ending during deer hunting season.  My wife has pointed out that this automatically disqualifies half of the male population of Lanark County, as men put things off to the last minute and will be too busy during deer hunting season to enter.   My answer to that is that women hunt.   Some hunt deer, some hunt for men and some are always on the hunt for new pair of shoes.     Women hunt.  I should note in passing that while I would normally assume that one of my wife’s comments directed at all men is somehow directed at me,  I don’t hunt.

Every contest requires a mathematical, time limited, question in order to take it out of the anti-gambling provisions of the Criminal Code.   I propose:   What is the weight of your glacial erratic, to the nearest ten kilograms, assuming that most common rocks composed mainly of silicates weigh about 160 pounds per cubic foot?    Some people will complain that this is a trick question designed to catch those that don’t realize that both pounds and kilograms are mentioned.  Others will complain that it is a trick question designed to catch those whose erratics are comprised of marble or limestone (both carbonates, not silicates). Some will complain that we should never have adopted the metric system.   Others will just complain.   However,  no one said that it had to be an easy question.    To overcome any concerns I propose giving each entrant two tries over two days.

Of course, that mathematical question will require that all entrants sign a Waiver acknowledging that the contest organizers  (a) do not encourage,  condone or recommend the lifting of bounders to determine their weight and (b) are not responsible for medical or other expenses where the entrant tries to weigh the erratic.   Other parts of the waiver still have to be drafted.

When to hold the awards ceremony?   The obvious  date is December 24 to commemorate the signing of the peace treaty that ended the war of 1812 (the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814) as this led to the founding of the Perth Military Settlement.   However, my wife has reminded me that I am usually busy on that day finishing my Christmas shopping.    I’m open to suggestions.

There is another obvious issue: When in November to close the contest?  For the first year I have arbitrarily chosen November 11th, because it  is a day that is easy to remember and because it commemorates the Battle of Crysler's Farm in Lower Canada.  What better day then to commemorate the decisive British and Canadian victory on November 11, 1813 which convinced the Americans to abandon their campaign down the St. Lawrence River!  However, many Lanark County residents have 11th of November booked each year, and that ceremony is the more important one.   For subsequent years I propose that 31 sequentially numbered counters be placed in a bag and that each year’s winner draw the date for the next year,  with the contest to close on the day drawn.   I do realize that there are 30 days in November.  Where number 31 is drawn the contest will not be held the following year.  Some will complain that it should end on the same day each year so people can plan.   Some will complain that if it is not held one year, then it is not an annual contest.  However, it is, after all, an erratic contest. 

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

Addendum (November 11th): 
      The Town of Perth may have a connection to the Battle of Crysler’s Farm.  In front of the Court House in Perth can usually be found two brass three-pounder light infantry cannons.   (One is currently missing, and is hopefully just out for repair.)  The cannon on the left (as you are looking at the Court House, and the one that remains) bears the inscription ‘J. & P. VERBRUGGEN, FECERUNT A 1775.’   The other cannon is reported to bear a nearly identical inscription.   The word 'fecerunt' is a Latin word that translates into English as 'made, constructed, cast.'   The cannons were undoubtedly cast at the Royal Brass Foundry at Woolwich, England where  Jan Verbruggen and his son Pieter were the master founders from 1770-86.   The cannons are said to have an interesting history: they were captured by the Americans from the British at the Battle of Saratoga, and were recaptured by the British regulars and Canadian militia at the Battle of Crysler’s Farm.   Later they were presented to the Perth Military Settlement.
    

Layering in the Mealy Mountains Anorthosite Complex, Labrador

In my last posting I mentioned that I had seen spectacular layering in anorthosite intrusions in Labrador.  Below are photographs that I took of layering in the anorthosite plutons that form the Mealy Mountains in Labrador.  The person that is the scale in the photographs is Dr. Ron Emslie of the Geological Survey of Canada, who was about average height for a world renowned expert on anorthosites.

Ron described the layering as follows:
“Within leucotroctolite, leucogabbro and anorthosite, igneous mineral layering on a scale of 1 cm to 10 m, or more, is common (Fig. 33. 2). Where rock exposure is good, layers or layer contacts can be found on most clean subvertical rock surfaces more than a few metres high. In leucotroctolite the mineral layering involves differences in proportions of olivine and plagioclase,
whereas in leucogabbro and anorthosite, variations in pyroxene and plagioclase proportions are the chief cause. In addition to mineral layering, manifestation of layers is due to differing plagioclase grain sizes and shapes and in some cases, plagioclase colour particularly in leucogabbro and anorthosite. Dark layers in some anorthositic rocks were found to consist of darker coloured plagioclase than that in the enclosing host rock. Such "dark plagioclase" layers were evident in some places even where the enclosing rock contained a noticeably higher proportion of ferromagnesian minerals. Large areas of the complex have relatively consistent layering attitudes. For example, the northwestern part of the complex has dips to the northwest
and west at angles less than 30 degrees. Other areas have remarkably discordant layer attitudes over short distances and sometimes even within the same outcrop. Such discordance seems to be a primary igneous feature of the crystal accumulation process and is not due to superimposed deformation.”

(Emslie, R. .F (1976), Mealy Mountains Complex, Grenville Province, Southern Labrador,
Report of Activities Part A; Geological Survey of Canada, Paper no. 76-1A; p. 165-170
http://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/starweb/geoscan/servlet.starweb?path=geoscan/fulle.web&search1=R=123988
http://ftp2.cits.rncan.gc.ca/pub/geott/ess_pubs/119/119844/pa_76_1a.pdf )


Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

Suggested Readings

Emslie, Ronald F.  (1975),  Nature and Origin of Anorthosite Suites, Geoscience Canada, Volume 2, Number 2, pages 99-104
http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/GC/article/view/2912
   
Emslie, Ronald F. (1980) , Geology and Petrology of the Harp Lake Complex, Central Labrador- an example of Elsonian Magmatism.  Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 293, 136 pages
http://data.gc.ca/data/en/dataset/96d2a3bc-c79d-57f1-8169-24e01d431893

Hamilton, Michael A. , Scoates, James S. and Rämö, O. Tapani  (2010)
The Petrology of Anorthosites, Related Granitic Rocks, and UHT Assemblages: a Tribute to Ronald F. Emslie, Can Mineralogist, volume 48, pages 705-710
http://canmin.geoscienceworld.org/content/48/4/705.full

Layering in the Lavant Gabbro Complex, Lanark County, Ontario

The Lavant Gabbro Complex, which lies northwest of Perth,  is purported to be the largest mafic body in the Grenville Province of Ontario.  It covers approximately 250 square kilometers.

 The following simplified geologic map shows the extent of the Lavant Gabbro Complex.

The towns of Lanark, Almonte, Carleton Place and Clyde Forks are shown on the map.  The town of Perth is under  the Legend.

The Lavant Gabbro Complex falls within the Sharbot Lake Terrane (sometimes called the Sharbot Lake domain)  of the Central Metasedimentary Belt of the Grenville Province, Canadian Shield.   The Sharbot Lake Terrane is comprised of marbles and metavolcanic rocks that have been intruded by gabbroic and granitic plutons.   It is bounded on the east by the Maberly shear zone and on the west by the Robertson Lake shear zone (sometimes called the Roberton Lake mylonite zone).   The metavolcanic rocks falling within the Sharbot Lake Terrane are not shown on the above  map. 

Much of the Lavant Gabbro Complex  was mapped in detail in the 1980's by Liba Pauk, J. M. Wolff  and Michael Easton of the Ontario Geological Survey, and outcrops of the complex can be easily found along a number of roads that cross the complex. 

Fernando Carfu and Michael Easton in a paper published in 1989 described the complex as follows:

“The Lavant gabbroic complex is a composite intrusion, roughly 50 km long and up to 15 km wide.   It consists of (i) a voluminous mafic suite, dominated by medium-grained gabbro to diorite, locally showing igneous layering and crosscutting relationships between several compositionally distinct phases; and (ii) a slightly younger granodiorite–monzogranite suite, which forms several small intrusive bodies and dikes cutting the gabbro.  The intermediate to felsic phases occur mainly in the structurally higher part of the complex, and also intrude adjacent supracrustal rocks, including the marbles.  Metamorphic grade of the complex varies from upper greenschist facies in the north to lower amphibolite facies in the south.   Contact relationships are complex, and inclusions, roof pendants and slivers of all the country rocks are present.  The gabbro body does not have an extensive contact aureole...”

They determined an age of 1224 ± 2 Ma for the gabbroic and associated monzogranitic rocks of the Lavant complex.

I’ve always been interested in layering in igneous rocks, and saw numerous examples of layering in anorthosite bodies in Labrador when I was employed as a summer student by the Geological Survey of Canada.  I wondered whether any examples of layering in the Lavant Gabbro complex could be easily found.

In her Report 253 published in 1989 Liba Pauk of the Ontario Geological Survey mentioned:

“Primary rhythmic and graded layering of pyroxene cumulus occurs in a roadcut 1.2 km northwest of Black Creek Meadow (Photo 5).  The layers strike 90 degrees and dip 30 degrees to the south.  The primary rhythmic layering was also recorded ... some 1.5 km east of the map area at roadcuts of Lavant County Road 16.”

Her Photo 5 shows spectacular layering.  The caption to her photo reads: Primary graded rhythmic layering in the Lavant Gabbro Complex.   The only exposure found in the map area is located along Joes Lake Road, 1.2 km northwest of Black Creek Meadow.”

I did find her outcrop, but as it is now overgrown and covered with moss or lichen,  the layering is no longer visible.   For those looking for the outcrop, please note that the “Joes Lake Road” mentioned by Liba Pauk has been renamed Black Creek Road, and that the outcrop is on the east side of the road 1.3 km north of where Black Creek crosses the road.  (More importantly, the current Joes Lake Road that is just south of Joes Lake is not the Joes Lake Road mentioned by Liba Pauk.)

In a paper published in 1994 Graham C. Wilson of the Ontario Geological Survey  mentioned:
   
“The best layering observed in this area, and indeed in the course of the whole project, was observed in a satellite body on the east side of the main intrusive mass, west of Hopetown. The layers (Fig. 5c) are graded, and reflect modal variation between light feldspar and dark minerals (pyroxene or secondary amphiboles).”

Figure 5c appears at page 147 of Wilson’s report 5580.   It shows spectacular layering.  I did not find that outcrop, but did find two outcrops west of Hopetown on the north side of County Road 16 (a kilometer or so west of Highway 511)  that show layering in the gabbroic rocks.  Below are photographs of the two outcrops:

While the layering in the second outcrop is much better than the photograph shows, neither outcrop compares with the spectacular layering that  I saw in Labrador.

In his Report 5693 published in 1988 Michael  Easton of the Ontario Geological Survey also reported on  primary igneous layering within the Lavant Gabbro Complex, which he mentioned  consisted “of a variety of gabbro phases, ranging from gabbro to diorite to pyroxene gabbro to gabbroic anorthosite.”   I have not yet found the time to look for his occurrences.   
   
Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario



References and Suggestions for Further Reading

Carfu, Fernando and Easton, R. Michael (1989), Sharbot Lake terrane and its relationship to Frontenac terrane, Central Metasedimentary Belt, Grenville Province: new insights from U-Pb geochronology, Can. J. Earth Sci. 34: 1239-1257
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e17-099

Easton,  R. Michael (1988), Geology of the Darling Area  Lanark and Renfrew Counties; Ontario Geological Survey, Open File Report 5693, 206 pages, at pages 60-66, Accompanied by Map 3113
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/OFR5693/OFR5693.pdf

Easton,  R. Michael and DeKamp, E.A. (1987),  Darling Area,  Lanark and Renfrew Counties; Report 34 at  pages 220-228, in Ontario Geological Survey Miscellaneous Paper 137, Summary of Field Work and Other Activities 1987

Pauk, Liba (1989a), Geology of the Dalhousie Lake Area, Frontenac and Lanark Counties; Ontario Geological Survey Report 245, 57 pages, at pages 17-23, Accompanied by Map 2512
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/R245/r245.pdf
                   
Pauk, Liba (1989b), Geology of the Lavant Area, Lanark and Frontenac Counties; Ontario Geological Survey Report 253, 61 pages, at pages 26-29, Accompanied by Map 2515
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/R253/R253.pdf
   
Wilson, G.C. (1994), Mafic-ultramafic intrusions, base-metal sulphides, and platinum group element potential of the Grenville province of southeastern Ontario: Ontario Geological Survey, Open File Report 5880, 196 pages at pages 125-128
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/OFR5880/OFR5880.pdf

Wolff, J. M., 1985, Geology of the Sharbot Lake Area, Frontenac and Lanark Counties, Southeastern Ontario; Ontario Geological Survey Report 228, 70 pages at pages 29-37, accompanied by Map 2471
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/R228/R228.pdf   

Lake Iroquois and the Glaciofluvial Deltaic Deposit at Joes Lake, Lanark Highlands, Ontario

About 18,000 years ago the Laurentide Ice Sheet reached its maximum thickness and  southward extent, covering Eastern Ontario with a thickness of over two kilometers of ice, and extending southward to New York City.   The southern edge of the glacier then started to retreat northward.  In the 1,500 year period starting about 12,500 years ago eastern Ontario changed from ice covered to ice free.   As the edge of the glacier retreated northward melt water from the retreating glacier formed a proglacial lake,  Lake Iroquois, a precursor of Lake Ontario.  Lake Iroquois covered all of present day Lake Ontario and extended northward abutting on the retreating glacier.   In its early stages Lake Iroquois covered Kingston and all of Prince Edward County, and then grew larger and extended northward as the glacier retreated.   There were two factors that allowed Lake Iroquois to extend northward and cover what is now dry land.   First, the weight of the Laurentide Ice Sheet had depressed much of Eastern Ontario from 175 to 230 meters.  Second, the retreating glacier formed an ice dam that prevented Lake Iroquois from draining down what is now the St. Lawrence River.  (The lake drained from an outlet at Rome, New York and then to the Hudson River.)

Twenty-two years ago Inez M. Kettles of the Geological Survey of Canada issued a report on the glacial deposits in Lanark, Frontenac and Leeds Counties.   (See:  Kettles, I.M., 1992, Glacial Geology and glacial sediment geochemistry of the Clyde Forks - Westport area of Ontario, Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 91-17.  The report can be downloaded from:
http://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/starweb/geoscan/servlet.starweb?path=geoscan/fulle.web&search1=R=133492).  

Inez Kettles  reports that glacial Lake Iroquois covered much of Lanark County, extending at least as far northward as Joes Lake in the Township of Lanark Highlands.   (Joes Lake is the name of both a lake and small village.  It is about 45 kilometers north west of Perth and is known for its fishing and magnificent views.  It is named for an Algonquin who had a camping spot over the lake and was known to walk to and from Perth. I drove.)       

Inez Kettles reported a large delta at Joes Lake that she identified as a proglacial subaerial outwash that she believes was built within 3 km of the retreating ice margin.  She mentions that “The exact position of the ice margin as the delta  was forming, is however, uncertain and it is possible that the delta is an ice contact deposit.  The cobbly, bouldery texture of some foreset beds exposed at Joes Lake and the presence of a well developed kettle hole on the delta surface indicate that these sediments were deposited close to the ice.  It is also possible that some sediments mapped as ice contact glacial deposits in the channel north of and leading to the delta, were deposited as proglacial outwash.”

Last year Victoria Lee of the Ontario Geological Survey issued a report on the aggregate resources of Lanark County that covered the glacialfluvial deposits, including the gravel pit at Joes Lake.   (See, Lee, V.L. 2013, Aggregate resources inventory of the County of Lanark, southern Ontario: Ontario Geological Survey, Aggregate Resources Inventory Paper 189, 85 p.    Her report can be downloaded from:
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/ARIP189/ARIP189.pdf   )  

When discussing the deposit at Joes Lake Victoria Lee  mentions:   “The deposit is a large glaciolacustrine deltaic deposit.  The delta is inferred to have been deposited close to the ice margin ... The deposit material, ranging from cobble-sized to silt, is well sorted with distinct layers of cobbles, gravel, sand and silt-rich layers.  ... Well-defined terraces mark the boundaries of the deposit.  One licensed pit (Pit No. 3) and one unlicensed pit (Pit No. 55) have been developed in the resource area.  Face heights in the pits range from 4 to 10 m; however, available borehole records indicate the potential for more than 15 m of sand and gravel locally.  Calcite cementation within the deposit holds material 30 degrees off the vertical and cause potential problems during extraction...”

Below are photographs  taken at the sand and gravel pit in the proglacial subaerial outwash deposit just to the north of Joes Lake along the Lavant Darling Road.

The last two photos show underlying beds of cobbles and sand that are truncated by later deposited layered  beds of cobbles and sand.

Inez Kettles’ report covers large parts of Lanark, Frontenac and Leeds counties.  Figure 10 to the report is a map that covers Clyde Forks, Sharbot Lake, Tichborne, Westport, Morton, Smiths Falls and Carleton Place.   It shows selected glaciofluvial deposits and glacial striae, and gives a good indication of the direction the glacier was moving.   Figure 11 shows the distribution of drumlins in the Clyde Forks, Westport, Smiths Falls and Ottawa area.  Both figures are worth a look.

In 1936 A.P. Coleman of the Ontario Department of Mines published a report on Lake Iroquois with an accompanying Map No. 45f entitled Lake Iroquois and Related Ice Front at the Time of the Rome Outlet  (Scale, 5 miles to the inch).    It is worth a look.  Below I’ve provided a copy of the map.  The part shaded green is the retreating glacier.  The part in blue, which covers Prince Edward County and Kingston, is Lake Iroquois.

The copy doesn’t do justice to the map, which can be downloaded from http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/ARM45F/ARM45F.pdf

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario