Possibilities of the Oil Resources of Canada 43 



impress on the topography mainly by the subsidence of great blocks as 

 in Baffins Bay and Davis Straits. 



Denuded Areas. 



A large portion of Canada forms what is referred to as the "Canadian 

 shield". This is an area largely denuded of any covering of Palaeozoic 

 beds that may have been deposited on the pre-palaeozoic continent. It 

 now forms an undulating or mammillated surface of crystalline or highly 

 metamorphosed rocks. 



Possible Oil Producing Areas. Eastern Maritime Fields. 



Between the fracture zones of the Atlantic border there are a few 

 areas which suffered but moderate deforma^tion. The largest is in New 

 Brunswick and only a slight production of oil has been obtainpd. In the 

 eastern part of Quebec in the Gaspe peninsula the presence of oil seeps 

 has induced the spending of large amounts in prospecting. The attempt 

 has not been successful in a commercial sense, owing no doubt, to the 

 small area of the fault blocks. In Nova Scotia only one oil seep has been 

 reported. In these areas the hope for oil production seems to lie in dis- 

 coveries of oil shales rich enough for profitable distillation. Promising 

 fields of oil shale have been found in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. 



St. Lawrence Fields. 



West of the broken area referred to above a narrow basin is found 

 embayed in the St. Lawrence valley between the Archaean area and the 

 northward continuation of the Appalachian Mountains of the United 

 States. In this basin sediments of the lower oil formations are found, 

 but as the area was isolated probably as early as Carboniferous time 

 through a period of elevation, and is of comparatively small size large 

 accumulations of oil are not expected in it. 



Ontario Fields. 



The basin lying to the west of the St. Lawrence basin extejnds west- 

 ward to the Rocky Mountains and the sediments have suffered only 

 slight warpings so that the accumulation of oil formed very large pools. 

 This basin has been for a long time the great oil field of the United States. 

 In CaUiada the outer rim is found in Ontario where a steady production 

 has been maintained for a long period. This has steadily declined, and 

 many of the pools ha-\e been nearly drained. The demand for oil has 

 revived the interest in further exploration. New pools have been located, 

 and deeper drilling or drilling to lower horizons indicates that possible 

 pools exist in these horizons. 



