No. 7.] (lEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 417 



" In the early part of the summer Mr. Weston devoted some 

 time, and with considerable success, to a careful search for fossils 

 in the dark earthy limestones associated with the dolomites and 

 serpentines in the Eastern Townships. He also secured there, 

 and subsequently at Arisaig in Nova Scotia, a number of inter- 

 esting and instructive photographs illustrating the geological 

 structure of these districts. He has likewise during the year 

 made a very large number of sections, mounted for microscopic 

 examination, of rocks and fossils, as well as of recent and fossil , 

 woods from various parts of the Dominion." 



" The chemical and mineralogical branches of the Survey, are 

 now under the charge of Dr. B.J.Harrington, ably assisted by 

 Mr. Christian Hoffman. Respecting the'iuvestigations during the 

 past year in these departments. Dr. Harrington reports as fol- 

 lows: 



'' The work in the laboratory, as in the previous year, has con- 

 sisted largely in the examination of economic minerals; although 

 a few rocks and minerals, more especially of scientific interest, 

 have been analysed." 



Details as to these analyses which are both numerous and im- 

 portant are given in this Report. 



In a scientific point of view the Report adds considerably to 

 our knowledge of the Pacific coast and of the great plains 

 stretching westward from Manitoba to the Rocky Mountains. 

 Tn the former the fossils collected by Mr. Richardson confirm 

 fully the Cretaceous age of the remarkable coal-field of Nanaimo 

 in Vancouver's Island, and shew also the existence of rocks 

 probably of Jurassic age, underlying these, and appearing in 

 Queen Charlotte's Islands. Fossils have also been found in a 

 still lower series of altered rocks, which are recognized by Mr. 

 Billings as probably of Carboniferous age. Thus in this strange 

 country, the old metamorphic rocks, in aspect like our oldest 

 formations in Eastern America, prove to be Carboniferous, while 

 the workable coals exist in the Cretaceous rocks. In the country 

 east of the Rocky Mountains, Mr. Selwyn and Prof. Bell have 

 ascertained the limits and general relations of Cretaceous and 

 Tertiary beds holding productive lignites and coals over a large 

 region of the plains. They have not, it is true, cleared up all 

 the problems as to the geological age of these beds, which have 

 perplexed the ideologists who have laboured in the continuation 

 of these formations further to the south, but they have settled 



