eo ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



overlaid by about seventy feet of drift clay or "till."' full of small pebbles 

 and passing into gravel toward the top. Much of the lignite retains a 

 distinctly woody nature, and some of the tree trunks are two feet in dia- 

 meter. When dry it makes a good fuel, but contains a little iron pyrites. 

 At a point nineteen miles below Coal Brook there is a deposit two and 

 one-half feet thick, and again, nine miles above the Opazatika or Poplar 

 Elver, there is a bed of shaly lignite six feet thick. Other deposits are 

 to be found in various localities.' From this it is evident that this 

 material occurs throughout an extended area of country. 



The two specimens numbered 46 and 47 represent lignite of a dull 

 black, having a somewhat lustrous fracture, but under the saw yielding 

 a chocolate-brown surface. The transverse fracture gives no evidence of 

 structure, but the radial fracture shows the medullary rays in a very 

 prominent manner. Great diflSculty v/aa experienced in getting good 

 sections of this material, since it would not 3'ield to boiling, and its very , 

 friable character necessitated saturating it with balsam before it could be 

 ground. In this way we finally succeeded in securing sections which, 

 while far from satisfactory, gave enough to permit a study of all the 

 details which the state of preservation would admit of recognition. The 

 specimen represented by number 45 consisted of loose vegetable matter of 

 a peaty character, but much broken up and suggesting either the action 

 of water or the effect of rough handling. It readily yielded to the action 

 of boiling water, through the influence of which the component vegetation 

 was brought into a condition well adapted to study. Specimen 44 con- 

 sists of broad, flaky masses, having a superficial area of about 9 square 

 centimetres, and showing that considerable clay and sand is mingled with 

 the much compacted vegetable matter. These flakes readily yielded to 

 the action of boiling water, and, like the previous specimen, thereby 

 became readil}' adapted to stud3\ Between two of the large flakes of ])eat 

 I found a splinter of wood 8 cm. long. 15 mm. wide, and 2 mm. thick 

 through its central portion. This has been designated by laboratory 

 number 44a. It rea<lily yielded to the action of boiling carbonate of 

 soda solution, and sections were then prepared by the paraffine method. 

 From a detailed study of the material thus described, the following data 

 have been obtained. 



LaRIX AMERICANA. 



The woody lignite described under numbers 46 and 47 was found to 

 have been much compressed, and thereby greatl}^ altered. This alter- 

 ation had also been increased by the operation of decay, so that in trans- 

 verse section nothing was recognizable beyond the demarcation of the 

 growth-rings. Localized oval or rounded masses of resin were somewhat 

 common, especially in number 47, and seemed to indicate the former 



Geol. Surv. Can., 1877-78, 4c. 



