No. 5. J DAWSON — LIGNITE FORMATIONS. 24S 



The lower part of this formation, however, in Nebraska, and 

 on the Missouri river, seems to show an attempt at the produc- 

 tion of beds of fuel. Beds of " impure lignite " of small thick- 

 ness and of "carbonaceous clays " are met with there, especially 

 in Hayden's lowest, or Dakota Group. Fossil leaves and stems 

 are also found associated with these beds, and one lignite occur- 

 rins: in beds believed to be transitional between the Dakota 

 Group and the Fort Benton Group, next above it, is even stated 

 to have been worked to a small extent, and to have been '' used 

 by blacksmiths with some success." 



There is therefore a possibility that the eastern edge of the 

 Cretaceous in some regions may yet give a supply of fuel ; and in 

 Manitoba, the lower beds, and those in which the deposits above 

 mentioned occur further south, probably lie east of the escarp- 

 ment of Pembina mountain, and further east than the Cretaceous 

 formation is made to extend in Hind's Geological Map, which 

 has hitherto been the authority for the region. These lower 

 beds, it they still exist beneath the alluvium of the Red River 

 valley, are nowhere exposed, and cannot be explored except by 

 boring operations. The possibility of tlie existence of fuel in the 

 representative of the Dakota Group in Manitoba is much increased 

 if the coal beds of the Upper Saskatchewan, examined last sum- 

 mer by Mr. Selwyn, are, as he supposes, of Lower Cretaceous 

 age also, for in this case there would appear to be a tendency in 

 the Lower Cretaceous formation east of the Rocky Mountains to 

 become coal-bearing northwards. 



Dr. Hector, many 3'cars ago, referred lignite beds observed by 

 him in this region, to the same period. In view of these facts- 

 the position and character of the Cretaceous rocks occurring in 

 Manitoba and the neighbouring country, becomes an interesting 

 and important subject of infjuiry. 



Fortunately, however, the advance of settlement and civiliza- 

 tion on the Western plains need not wait for the development of 

 these possibilities, or for the tedious process of the planting and 

 growth of trees suitable for fuel. A great deposit of fossil fuel, 

 of still later age than the Cretaceous, has of late years been pro- 

 minently brought to notice in the Western States, and the nor- 

 thern extension of this lignite formation of Tertiary age is largely 

 developed in the Canadian Northwest. The existence of these 

 fuels on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains has long beea 

 known in a general way. Sir x\lexander Mackenzie, the explorer 



