40 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



have studied this field, which has a very extensive development 

 to the east of Montreal, as well as along the valley of the river 

 northward, that the prospects for obtaining this material in 

 commercial amount are very good. In the lower Ottawa basin 

 the greatest development of the rocks trom the Trenton up to 

 the Medina red shales, which is a succession precisely like that 

 where the tests were made at Nicolet, is in the townships of 

 Russell and Gloucester. No attempt has as yet been made to 

 test this portion of the Ottawa basin, and nothing further can 

 be said as to the probability of finding natural gas in this area, 

 except that the strata are apparently undisturbed and there is a 

 heavy capping of shales overlying the Utica and Trenton forma- 

 tions. Further east on the bank of the South Nation River a 

 shallow boring was put down several years ago which produced 

 gas in considerable quantity, and in this respect the area 

 resembles that of the St. Lawrence. Several borings have also 

 been sunk near the line of the Canada Atlantic Railway for 

 water, as also near Caledonia Springs, but these, though they 

 reached a depth at one place of about 800 feet, started below 

 the surface of the Trenton and gave no results as to the 

 presence of gas or oil. The upper formations of the Utica 

 and Lorraine are absent from this portion of the basin, so 

 that the area is not a typical one for tests of this kind. The 

 discovery of natural gas in the vicinity ot Ottawa would be of 

 such great importance that one trial, even if attended with 

 failure, should not be allowed to condemn the enterprise. In 

 the case of the boring [made within the city limits some years 

 ago, it may be said that no results in this direction should have 

 been expected. The boring started on Trenton limestone and 

 in a part of the formation much broken by faults, so that if ever 

 gas existed in that area it had an excellent chance to make its 

 escape long before the bore-hole was started. 



It would of course be rash to state that borings in the 

 Palaeozoic formations, south of the Ottawa, would result in find- 

 ing either gas or oil in profitable quantities; and in this connec- 

 tion it may be stated that, in so far as explorations along these 



