280 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



In addition to the lignite and peat deposits which have not as yet 

 appreciably affected the importation of outside fuels, the deposits of 

 petroleum which were first disbovered in Ontario about 1860, and later 

 the finding- of natural gas in immense quantity, have added largely to the 

 resources of the province as regards light and fuel. The first attempts 

 at boring in the peninsula between lakes Huron and Erie resulted in the 

 outflow of such large quantities of oil that millions of barrels were re- 

 ported as lost through lack of appliances for saving it. This discovery, 

 together with that lof similar deposits in certain parts of the United 

 States, soon closed down the small distilling plants which were manufac- 

 turing oils from the bituminous shales of the Utica formation found in 

 the Lake Huron district, as well as from the Albert shales lof New Bruns- 

 wick. 



The original field from which the Ontario petroleum was first ob- 

 tained is still a producer lof mineral oil, though as might naturally be 

 expected the supply in recent years has materially decreased. 



The discovery of natural gas about fifteen years ago in the place 

 where petroleum was first known, and later in the Niagara peninsula, has 

 largely affected the coal consumption in some districts. In addition to 

 suppljdng the local requirements immense quantities have .been piped 

 across to the cities of Buffalo and Detroit on the American side of the 

 great lakes. Exploration for both gas and oil is constantly going on 

 and reported discoveries of fresh fields are occasionally announced. It is 

 safe to say that as yet nothing has equalled in importance the great wells 

 of the Petrolea district at the time of their first discovery. 



With the exception of the peat and lignite deposits, already de- 

 scribed, that portion of ©ntari'O north of Lake Superior is, so far as 

 known, lacking in mineral fuel, the rocks of this part of 

 the province belonging for the most part to the loldest crys- 

 tallines which extend into the province of Manitoba where they 

 form the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg and continue thence 

 south-east across the Lake of the "Woods into northern Min- 

 nesota. The finding of occasional veins of anthraxolite in these old 

 rocks, a feature already referred to for the eastern provinces, sometimes 

 gives rise to reports of the discovery of deposits of anthracite coal in 

 this area, but so far as known the geological conditions of this part of 

 the Dominion are adverse to any such conclusion 



Hitherto, in the investigation of this subject the highest or newest 

 rocks of eastern Canada are of Triassic age. These are found in Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick. In the geological scale these rocks are next 

 in order above the L^pper Carboniferous or Permian. But in the western 

 half of the Canadian section, beginning Avith the great plain of Manitoba, 



