1899] Mineral Resources of the Ottawa District. 39 



said the old knight, " and if you had been there a little sooner 

 you would probably have seen them putting it in too." A few 

 days after, in taking out some other samples of coal from this 

 hole it was found that these were mixed with bread and cheese, 

 showing that the person who so ingeniously " salted " the pro- 

 perty had not been sufficiently careful in the selection of his 

 ingredients. A subsequent investigation showed conclusively 

 that the bore-hole had not even passed through the clay cover- 

 ing, and that the solid rock had never been reached, so that this 

 attempt to start a coal mine in Ontario was a dismal failure. A 

 similar attempt at coal discovery in Quebec was made on the 

 north side of the St. Lawrence, below Quebec city, but a careful 

 examination of this mine also showed it to consist of pieces of 

 the mineral which had been stuck in the clay along the course 

 of a small brook, so that this attempt also fell flat. 



It would certainly be a wonderful thing and a great benefit 

 to the industries of this district, if coal in workable quantity 

 could be found anywhere in this area, but until the present geo- 

 logical conditions change very materially, it is to be feared there 

 will never be any very great development in this direction, and 

 the only alternative, if we wish to use our own fuel, is to utilize 

 some of our great deposits of peat. 



The question of natural gas and oil along the St. Lawrence 

 has already received some attention, and will doubtless before 

 long be again taken up. The developments along the east side 

 of that river in the vicinity of Nicolet by boring, though carried 

 down to a comparatively small depth, proved that natural gas 

 does exist in that area, and it was obtained in considerable 

 quantity at the first attempt. A large vein of gas was at one 

 point struck at a depth of less than 600 feet, which came out 

 with such force as to wreck the plant and hurl mud and stones 

 many feet into the air. The hole was not however continued 

 down to the Trenton, which was supposed to be the great reser- 

 voir of this material, owing to a lack of capital on the part of 

 those interested ; but the abandoned hole is still discharging 

 gas in considerable quantity. It is the opinion of those who 



