INTRODUCTION. 

 A Sketch of the Physical Features of Manitoba. 



Manitoba lies between 49° and 52° 50' North Lati- 

 tude; and between 95° 15' and nearly 191° 30' West 

 Longitude. It is 47 Townships wide (=282 miles) by 44 

 Townships high (=264 miles), and has a total area of 74,448 

 square miles. 



Geology.* 



The Laurentian system, which constitutes the largest part 

 of the Archaean or fundamental crystalline series, includes the 

 oldest rocks of the earth's crust. They are divided into older 

 and newer parts. The north-eastern quarter of North America, 

 including Greenland and most of the larger islands in that 

 direction, consists of the older or primitive gneiss series, of 

 Lower Laurentian age; but the newer Laurentian is also 

 represented in Baffin-land and in eastern Labrador. Most 

 of this immense Laurentian area is not greatly elevated, the 

 general surface constituting a pene-plain with a mammillated 

 surface. 



In north-eastern Labrador and throughout the great island 

 of Baffin-land, more than 1,000 miles in length, the same rocks 

 form mountain ridges from 3,000 to 8,000 feet in height, the 

 higher parts of which are not glaciated Hke the extensive 

 Laurentian pene-plains just described. 



The Huronian system, consisting of older and newer 

 divisions, constitute the upper portion of the Archaean rocks. 

 This is the great metalliferous series of the Dominion. Be- 

 tween it and the Laurentian, a volcanic group to which the 

 name Kiwaitin ("Keewatin") has been given, is generally, but 

 not always, found. 



' For a revision of this chapter I am indebted to Dr. Robert Bell, of the Canadian 

 Geological Survey. 



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