96 G. M. DAWSON ON BORINGS IN 
cially in December, 1883, a short time before the accident above alluded to occurred. The 
terms employed are chiefly those of the borers’ log, though in a few cases, where Mr. 
McConnell was able to ascertain accurately the nature of the material, it is described. 
The section is further supplemented by notes which I was so fortunate as to obtain from 
Mr. W. A. Simpson, who was foreman in charge of the second boring. He was able to 
give me a description of the general colours of the beds passed through, which affords an 
important clue in endeayouring to correlate them with the known Cretaceous deposits of 
the Northwest. : 
Taking all the facts into consideration, I am inclined to think that we have, first, 88 
feet of drift deposits, with, underlying them, about 223 feet of the lower part of the Belly 
River series, the remaining 1,099 feet consisting of the “‘ Lower Dark shales” of my Report, 
but passing (as already stated) at the bottom into beds probably lower than any naturally 
exposed in the region, with the possible exception of those seen in the upturned strata 
surrounding the Sweet Grass Hills. I am uncertain whether to regard the upper part of 
the “ Lower Dark shales” as constituting a basal portion of the Pierre separated by the 
Belly River series from the upper part of the Pierre, or as representing the lower part of 
the Niobrara, and passing below into the Benton. In either case, the lower beds met with 
in the boring are probably equivalent to the Benton, and some of those found in the 
last 400 feet of the boring closely resemble, in several characters, beds seen south of the 
Rocky Spring Ridge in northern Montana, while the beds above these, up to about the 
900 feet level, compare closely with those in the escarpment of the same ridge, though 
they do not include the heavy sandstone bed there met with.” 
The wells at this place did not yield any sufficient quantity of good water, though 
small flows were met with at several levels. They have, however, demonstrated the very 
important fact that a large supply of natural combustible gas exists in this district, 
at depths of 900 feet and over, in the sandy layers of the “Lower Dark shales.” In 
consequence of the generally horizontal position and widespread uniformity in character 
of the rocks, it is probable that a similar supply will be met with over a great area of 
this part of the Northwest, and that it may become in the near future a factor of economic 
importance. The gas is doubtless derived from the decomposition of the organic matter 
of the dark carbonaceous shales occurring in the section. Mr. J. M. Egan, in a letter of 
late date (June 11, 1886), informs me that the flow of gas from this well has continued 
since without noticeable decrease. 
It is unfortunate, for several reasons, that the boring at Langevin was not carried 
still deeper. Reasoning from analogy with other parts of the Western Territory, one 
would expect to meet with the Dakota sandstones or basal formation of the Cretaceous 
of the region at no great depth below that actually attained, and in these it is not 
improbable that a good supply of water might be found. There is, also, probably on the 
line of the railway no better place in which, by penetrating the Cretaceous series, to 
ascertain whether it is underlain by Devonian rocks like those of the Athabasca region, 
and whether these maintain their petroleum-bearing character so far south. The anticlinal 
structure already alluded to must, in the absence of contrary evidence, be assumed to 

1 Report of Progress Geological Survey, 1882-84. 
? See Report of Progress Geological Survey, 1882-84, p. 42 o. 

