242 II. 1'. II. BRUMELL — PETROLEUM IX QUEBEC. 



underlying limestone is estimated at about 2,000 feet. These roeks are 

 largely developed in the vicinity of Gaspe bay, where they form a scries 

 of almost parallel anticlinals, on or near the axes of which the greater 

 part of the exploratory work has been done. 



Dr R. W. Ells, in the report cited above, speaks of these anticlinals as 

 follows : 



"The rocks of the series have a considerable development on the several rivers 

 that How into Gaspe hay, where they lie in shallow basins, bounded by the anti- 

 clinals, which bring into view the strata of the lower or Gaspe limestone series. 

 These basins are at least four in number, the dividing anticlinals being known as 

 the Haldimand, the Tar Point, the Point Saint Peter, and the Perce, the most 

 southerly yet recognized. On the south side they rest upon rocks of the Silurian 

 system. The whole formation may therefore be said to occupy a geosynclinal basin, 

 the western limit of which has not yet been traced, but which will probably be 

 found to be continuous with the basin recognized on the Cascapedia river, ami 

 thence extending to the Metapedia." 



Former Knowledge concerning the Locality. — In the " Geology of Canada," 

 1863, page 789, the following mention is made of the various natural oil 

 springs of the district. This includes probably all that was known of the 

 occurrence of oil in Gaspe up to that date : 



"At the oil spring at Silver brook, a tributary of the York river, the petroleum 

 oozes from a mass of sandstone and arenaceous shale, which dips southeastwardly 

 at an angle of 13° and is nearly a mile to the south of the crown of the anticlinal. 

 The oil, which here collects in pools along the brook, has a greenish color and an 

 aromatic odor, which is less disagreeable than that of the petroleum of western 

 Canada. From a boring which has been sunk in the sandstone to a depth of about 

 200 feet there is an abundant flow of water, accompanied with a little gas and very 

 small quantities of oil. Farther westward, at about twelve miles from the mouth 

 of the river, oil was observed on the surface of the water at the outcrop of the lime- 

 stone. Petroleum is met with at Adams' oil spring, in the rear of lot B of York, 

 nearly two miles east of south from the entrance of Gaspe" basin. It is here found 

 in small quantities floating upon the surface of the water, and near by is a layer of 

 thickened petroleum, mixed with mold, at a depth of a foot beneath the surface 

 of the soil. A mile to the eastward, at Sandy beach, oil is said to occur, and, again, 

 at Haldimandtown, where it rises through the mud on the shore. These three 

 ocalities are upon the sandstone and on the line of the northern anticlinal which 

 passes a little to the north of the Silver Brook oil spring. Farther, to the southeast, 

 on the line of the southern anticlinal and about two miles west of Tar Point, which 

 takes its name from the petroleum found there, another oil spring is said to be 

 found, three-quarters of a mile south of Seal cove. On the south side of the Doug- 

 lastown lagoon, and about a mile west of the village, oil rises in small quantities 

 from the mud on the beach. A well has here been bored to a depth of L25 feel in 

 the sandstone, which dips to the southwest at an angle of 10°, but traces only of 

 oil have been obtained. Farther to the westward oil is said to occur on the second 

 fork of the Douglastown river. Traces of it have also been observed in a brook 



