PETROLEUM IN THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES. 227 
Rouge,’ a copious spring of mineral pitch issues from a crevice com- 
posed of sand and bitumen. It lies a few hundred yards back from 
the river in the middle of a thick wood. Several small birds were 
found suffocated in the pitch.” * * At the deserted fort named 
‘Pierre au Calumet,’ cream-colored and white limestone cliffs are 
covered by thick beds of bituminous sand. * * A few miles 
further gn the cliffs for some distance are sandy, and the different 
beds contain variable quantities of bitumen. Some of the lower 
layers were so full of that mineral as to soften in the hand, while the 
upper strata, containing less, were so cemented by iron as to form a 
firm dark-brown sandstone of much hardness. * * The whole 
country for many miles is so full of bitumen that it flows readily into 
a pit dug a few feet below the surface. In no place did I observe the 
limestone alternating with these sandy bituminous beds, but in 
several localities it is itself highly bituminous, contains shells filled 
with that mineral, and when struck yields the odor of stinkstein.” 
Elsewhere, this author describes these bituminiferous sands as 
resting unconformably upon the limestones, and, indeed, they must 
be of much more recent age, as he states that ‘in one of the cliffs 
not far below the Clear-water River, the indurated arenaceous beds 
resting on the limestone contain pretty thick layers of lignite, much 
impregnated with bitumen, which has been ascertained by Mr. 
Bowerbank to be of coniferous origin, though he could not determine 
the genus of the wood.” 
In approaching Athabaska Lake the banks of the river of the same 
name become low and consist of gravel and reddish earth, then sand 
and finally only alluvial soil. The last evidence of the bitumen con- 
sists of rolled balls on pebbles of sand cemented together by the tar, 
which have been carried down by the river. According to Prof. 
Maconn, these balls are very abundant and in places form beds of 
“tar conglomerate” in the river banks often two feet thick. Mr. 
Hardisty, who passed up this river last summer (1878), informs me 
that the banks on both sides are frequently composed of sand 
cemented by pitch, which softens in the sun and renders the walking 
very disagreeable. Masses of the more hardened varieties lie about 
on the river shores like lumps of coal. 
At its western extremity, Athabaska Lake discharges its waters 
northward by the Slave River into Slave Lake, receiving the Peace 
River from the west, a short distance below the outlet. Fort Chipe- 
