No. 7.] (GEOLOGICAL SlTRYET OF CANADA. 410 



siclerably below rcduess, a reduction of the peroxide eusued, and 

 a black, strongly magnetic powder w^as obtained, apparently con- 

 sisting of magnetic oxide, and not of metallic iron, as it occa- 

 sioned no precipitation of metallic copper in a solution of the 

 sulphate. The cover was now removed from the crucible and a 

 red heat given, when in a short time the powder again became 

 red, or rather purplish-red, and non-magnetic. Finally, the heat 

 was raised a little higher (to bright redness), and soon the 

 powder became black and strongly magnetic, having apparently 

 parted with a portion of its oxygen. These changes are instruc- 

 tive, for wiiile brought about in the laboratory they might take 

 place in nature. They shew, too, that in some cases magnetites 

 may have been formed from such ores as bog ore at compara- 

 tively low temperatures, the reduction being due to the organic 

 matter of the ore." 



The Report is rich in information on coal and iron, the two 

 great staples of our mineral wealth. Though the two provinces 

 of old Canada might truly be said to be destitute of coal, 

 this can no longer be affirmed of the Dominion of Canada. 

 In addition to our 18,000 square miles, or thereabout, of coal- 

 formation in the Lower Provinces, we now find at least 

 100,000 square miles of the western plains underlaid by coal, or 

 lignite which will serve for coal ; and beside this there is the 

 valuable, if less extensive Cretaceous coal-area of Vancouver's 

 Island, with others of unknown extent on the mainland of 

 British Columbia. "With regard to the district explored by 

 him, ]Mr. Selwyn "writes: 



" Dr. Hector has separated the Edmonton coal rocks from 

 those in the vicinity of the Mountain House by an intervening 

 area which he considered to be occupied by a somewhat higher 

 section or division of the Cretaceous series. He did not appar- 

 ently see the thick seam of coal which I found, as above stated, 

 below the Brazeau Biver, about eighty-six miles from Bocky 

 Mountain House ; and another seam of five feet six inches thick, 

 which I found at a point some fifteen miles higher up the river, 

 as well as the numerous indications of seams which occur between 

 the out-crop of the eighteen feet seam and Edmonton, probably also 

 escaped his notice, as he travelled partly during the night, and 

 in the winter, on the ice, when many of the exposures along the 

 banks must have been concealed by snow. The observations 

 which I was able to make descending" the river do not enable me 



