420 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vil. 



to say whether the seams retain their thicknesses or are connected 

 for long distances, or whether the very numerous exposures and 

 indications seen in the cUff sections represent only more or less 

 lenticular shaped and isolated patches, repeated at different 

 horizons and over large areas. Dr. Hector appears to incline to 

 the latter idea, and, in a note referring to the seams at Rocky 

 Mountain House, he states, ' The coal beds are not continuous 

 for long distances.' Whether this is actually the case or not, 

 there can be no question that in the region west of Edmonton, 

 bounded on the north by the Arthabaska River and on the south 

 by the Red Deer River, there exists a vast coal field covering an 

 area of not less than 25,000 square miles : and beneath a large 

 portion of this area we may expect to find workable seims of 

 coal at depths seldom exceeding 300 feet, and often, as in the 

 case of the thick seams above described, very favourably situated 

 for working by levels from the surrcice.*' 



Mr. Richardson contributes additional facts tending to prove 

 the value of the coal-fields of British Columbia, in which province 

 there appear also to exist important developments of silver ores. 

 The coal-fields of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton are better known ; 

 but important additional facts are stated with respect to them, 

 and the progress which has been made toward the unravelling 

 of the complexities of the disturded coal-strata in the central 

 part of the Cumberland coal-field, is very creditable to the gen- 

 tlemen eno;a2;ed in the work. 



Iron is next to coal the greatest source of national wealth, and 

 it is only necessary to glance at this part of the Report to 

 see how largely and liberally Canada is endowed with the richest 

 ores of this metal. It is true that in the large Laurentian and 

 Huronian areas, where the most valuable ores of this kind 

 abound, they are remote from mineral fuel, and their value is 

 thereby lessened ; but this does not apply to the equally" rich 

 and almost equally extensive deposits of Nova Scotia, which are 

 in the immediate vicinity of coal, and which afi"ord the means 

 of making the best iron perhaps more cheaply than any other 

 region in the world. More especial]}" is this true of the deposits 

 in the Cobequid mountains in the vicinit}" of the coal-field of 

 Cumberland, and of those of Pictou, close to the great collieries 

 of that district. The former have the advantage of having been 

 already partially opened and worked, but the coal-field in their 

 neighbourhood is less developed. The latter are not yet fully 



