118 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viiL 



Report on the Geology and Resources op the region in 

 the vicinity op the forty-ninth parallel, prom the 

 Lake op the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. By 

 George Mercer Dawson, Assoc. R.S.M., F.G.S., Geologist 

 and Botanist to the Commission ; addressed to Major D. R. 

 Cameron, R. A., Commissioner. Large 8vo., pp. 379, with 

 numerous maps and illustrations. 



In this volume Mr. Dawson has given us in a very clear and 

 thorough manner the result of his explorations while acting 

 in the capacity of geologist and botanist to the Boundary Com- 

 mission. We have not space in this number for lengthy extracts, 

 but the following from the prefatory note addressed by Mr. 

 Dawson to the Commissioner will serve to give an idea of the 

 character and scope of the work : — 



"In undertaking single-handed the care of Natural History work in, 

 connection with the Boundary Commission, it was ohvious that in 

 attempting too much it might happen that nothing should be well 

 done. I therefore decided to give the first place to geology ; and 

 in that field to endeavour to work out as far as possible the structure 

 of the country, and to make illustrative collections of rocks and 

 fossils, rather than to amass large local collections at the expense of 

 general information. Such time as could be spared from the geolo- 

 gical investigations has b< en devoted to collection and work in other 

 departments ; and in this Report the results are presented, elabora- 

 ted in so far as the time at my disposal would allow, and supplemen- 

 ted also by several valuable notices of the collections in special 

 departments, by gentlemen whose names are elsewhere stated. 



" The field work, in extent, has directly covered a region, stretching 

 from the Lake of the Woods, on the east, to the Rocky Mountains on the 

 west, and lying in the vicinity ot the forty-ninth parallel, which here 

 forms the International Boundary. In time it has extended over two 

 seasons, those of 1873-74. Owing to the vastness of the region cover- 

 ed by the operations of the survey, mueh of the period actually spent 

 in the field has been necessarily employed in more or less arduous, 

 and often almost continuous travel. ****** 



" The main geological result arrived at is the examination and de- 

 scription of a section over 800 miles in length aeross the central 

 region of the continent, on a parallel of latitude which has hereto- 

 fore been geologically touched upon at a few points only, and in the 

 vicinity of which a space of.over 3 *0 miles in longitude has — till the 

 operations of the present expedition — remained even geographically 

 unknown. 



"In working up the geological material, I have found it necessary 

 to make myself familiar with the geological literature, not only of 

 the interior region of British America, but with that of the western 

 portion of the United States to the south, where extensive and accu- 

 rate geological surveys have been carried on. It has been my aim to 

 make the region near the boundary line as much as possible a link of 

 connection between the more or less isolated previous surveys, and 

 to collect by quotation or reference, the facts bearing on it from 

 either side. In this way it has been attempted to make the forty- 

 ninth parallel a geological base-line with which future investigations 

 may be connected. The matter contained in the special preliminary 

 report on the Lignite Tertiary formation, published last year, has in 

 this final report been included, in so far as necessary to complete the 

 general section on the line." 



