,2. Pages from the Book of Time The Quarry Beds at Stony Mountain reveal, that at one time, millions and millions of years ago, the temperature in the township of Rockwood was as warm as the South Seas are to-day. Life appeared in this warm sea. The sea contained countless creatures, which built structures, the remains of which, called coral—form limestone. This limestone is of the Ordovician period (the lower palaeozoiz age), is about five hundred feet thick at Stony Moun- tain and rests on a layer of sandstone which itself rests on rocks similar to rocks near West Hawk Lake (called Pre—Cambrian formation). The sandstone from five to one hundred feet thick has an outcropping at Grindstone Point on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. The rocks on which the limestone rests were at one time torn by volcanoes, and full of cracks and holes, but gradually these rocks became cooler and were planed off, the sea came and covered them. The life which then appeared were spineless (invertabra) and some fossils by being turned into limestone. These fossils are found in the limestone from the sandstone bed to the shale at the surface. The fossils found are creatures without a spine, among which were snails, clams, and the sea life that made coral—— polyps. There were no trees or flowers or plants when these shales at Stony Mountain were formed—neither were there animals nor man. Stony Mountain is about one hundred and twenty feet above the limestone, and about eighty feet above the plain. Why, or when, this occurred no one knows for certain. Possibly one of the volcanoes in the rocks below became alive and pushed the limestone up. Then, the pages of time are blank and there is silence for about four hundred million years. And, quite recently in time, about fifty thousand years ago, the temperature over Stony Mountain became cooler and then Id. ’1 thick layer of ice crept in from the north. This ice ggi'riedtrocks, stones, and gravel from the hills and mountains in'its path. Many of these rocks and gravel are found on the farms and on Stony Mountain itself. The temperatures became warmer, and, about twelve thousand years ago, the ice melted, leavmgtbemdes, stones, piles of gravel and scattered rocks, a lake which was called Lake Agassiz. This lake drained away and. Stony Mountain became, first an island, and then much as it is today. Man had appeared on the Earth; History was being recorded. Men athered into tribes, nations were instituted, empires were fountgied, destroyed and others were bullt, and they too fell. It was in the process of the founding of the British Emplre that Stony Mountain, indirectly and unknowmgly, was introduced first into history, having been included Withln the boundaries of" the Grant given May 2nd, 1670 by Charles II King of England to “A Company of Gentlemen Adventurers trading 1nto the Hudson’s Bay” (now called the Hudson’s Bay Company) and remained in the possession of that company until the 12th day of June, 1811, when subject to the rights of the Indians, it was included in the sale to the Earl of Selkirk of 116,000 square miles for ten shillings. This area within thls grant was called Assiniboia. In 1835 the Hudson’s Bay Compalny purchasedi fsrcolrcili Estate of Lord Selkirk this same area, ess any an ., iggm the estate of the Earl of Selkirk for $430,000.00. ThlS territory contained in the grant from Charles II remained the possession of the Company until 1869, when the same was acquired by Great Britain, which transferred all their interest to the Dominion of Canada. The Land was opened for Homestead. The Pioneers came marching in! I !