Section IV., 1896. [ 59 ] Trans. R. S. C. 



V. — Contributions to the Pleistocene Flora of Canada.^ 



By D. P, Penhallow. 



(Read May 21, 1896.) 



Since the author's first general summary of the Pleistocene flora of 

 Canada, in 1890.' a number of additions have been made, which serve yet 

 more fully to establish the similarity between the flora of that period 

 and our own times. We have now to record other additions \vhich serve 

 to extend the geographical range over a much wider area. 



PEAT AND LIGNITE FROM THE MOOSE AND MISSINAIBI RIVERS. 

 The material on which the first part of the present paper is based 

 was collected by Dr. Eobert Bell, of the Geological Survey, during the 

 progress of his survey in the Moose Eiver region, in the summer of 1895. 

 As received by me, it was represented by four lots but only two kinds- 

 coarse peat and lignite. These specimens are designated by laboratory 

 numbers 44, 45, 46 and 47. Numbers 46 and 47 are lignite obtained from 

 a locality on the Moose Eiver about fifty miles from its mouth. Numbers 

 44 and 45 are specimens of coarse peat or vegetable matter derived from 

 the foot of the Long Portage on the Missinaibi Eiver, a stream which 

 constitutes the western branch of the Moose Eiver, reaching to within 

 about twenty miles of the station of the same name on the Canadian 

 Pacific Eailway, but on the opposite side of the divide. Dr. Bell reports 

 that this peat occurs in horizontal layers in a clayey deposit at a depth of 

 fifty feet from the surface. For fully twenty years it has been known 

 that lignite occurs in abundance on the Moose Eiver and the tributary 

 above mentioned. In 1865 Dr. Bell noted its occurrence, and in his 

 report for the surveys of that year states that, in addition to its having 

 been reported as seen in situ at the mouth of Coal Brook, fragments wei-e 

 to be found strewn, often in abundance, all along the bed of the Mis- 

 sinaibi Eiver from the Forks to Coal Brook.-* Similar lignites had pre- 

 viously been found on the Mattagami and Albany Elvers.* In 1867 Dr, 

 Bell was able to observe this lignite i7i situ in several places on the Mis- 

 sinaibi Eiver between the Long Portage and its junction with the Matta- 

 gami, At Coal Brook, three-fourths of a mile from its mouth, the deposit 

 is about three feet thick. It is underlaid by soft, sticky blue clay, and 



1 In the preparation of thi.s paper I am much indebted to Sir Wm. Dawson for a 

 number of valuable suggestion.s relative to the geological aspect^ of the question. 

 - " On the Pleistocene Flora of Canada," EuU. Geol. Soc. Amer., i., o21. 

 •• Geo). Surv. Can., 1875-76, 326. 

 ^Ibid., 1871-72, 112. 



