^50 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vii. 



probably Ruhiis and Hedera are among the genera represented ; 

 and it is not the least remarkable of the facts indicated by 

 these deposits that they thus prove that in a conip iratively 

 modern period the region now so entirely destitute of trees was 

 covered by a dense growth of forest. 



Though it must not be supposed that the lignites of this re- 

 gion are comparable w^ith true coal as fuel, they are still of con- 

 siderable value, and will play a very important part in the 

 settlement of a country so destitute of wood, not only as fuel for 

 ordinary use, but in the manufacture of bricks for constructive 

 purposes from the abundant clays. Most of the samples obtained 

 •were necessarily merely outcrop ones, aud these fuels deteriorate 

 rapidly under the action of the weather ; still the average of 

 fixed carbon in 13 samples from widely separated localities was 

 over 40 per cent, and the ash in nearly every case very small in 

 -amount and light in colour, indicating the absence of iron pyrites. 



As examples of the composition, two analyses of lignites from 

 good compact seams, where the bank had recently fallen away 

 and exposed a fresh surface, are here given. The first is from a 

 ■loed 7 feet 3 inches thick on the Souris ; the second from the 

 lower part of the 18 foot bed included in the last section, and at 

 -a distance from the other of considerably over 100 miles. 



JSouris R. Valley, 1ft. 3 m. seatn. Porcupine Creeky 18 /if. seam. 



Water 15.11 Water 12.05 



Fixed Carbon 45.57 Carbon 46.18 



Volatile matter. ... 32 76 Volatile matter. .. .35.12 

 Ash 4.56 Ash 6 65 



These lignites, therefore, while superior to many which are 

 •used in other parts of the world, are somewhat inferior to the 

 best class of lignite coals found on the line of the Union Pacific 

 -Hailway, some of which contain from 45 to 53 per cent, of fixed 

 carbon. These occur in detached basins of this formation, but 

 probably in lower beds than those now described, and have also 

 been improved by metamorphism connected with the elevation 

 of the mountains with which they are in proximity, and with 

 the contortion of the strata containing them, the lignites being 

 in some cases actually on edge, and frequently inclined at high 

 angles. Similar flexures will probably be found to affect the 

 :fermation north of the 49th parallel, when traced towards the 

 mountains, and the lignites may improve m quality in the same 

 way. The depo.sits here described, however, gain much by their 



