230 PETROLEUM IN THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES. 
and to the southward of the above limits far enough to give a total 
length of two thousand miles. They belong to the Devonian system 
and have a strong resemblance to the petroleum-bearing strata of 
Western Ontario. The corals of the Corniferous formation are often 
filled with bitumen like those of the limestones of the Athabaska and 
McKenzie Rivers; and the pyrites and carbonaceous matter of the 
black shales of Kettle Point, on Lake Huron, under the influence of 
air and moisture, have given rise to a sort of spontaneous combus- 
tion like that of the shale of the McKenzie. Southward of the 
Clear-water River the petroleum-bearing formation strikes across the 
Saskatchewan, between Cumberland House and The. Forks, and, 
passing through lakes Winnipegosis and Manitoba, it continues 
southward up the Red River valley, and is lost in the United States. 
On the shore of Lake Winnipegosis, brine springs issue from these 
rocks, and salt is also found in abundance near Slave River and 
between Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake. Petroleum may be 
looked for all along the strike of this great Devonian formation in 
our North-West Territories, including the tract at the eastern base 
of the high grounds on the west side of the lakes of the Winnipeg 
basin. 
I shall conclude by referring very briefly to the indieations of 
petroleum found to the south of James’ Bay. In this region the 
limestones’ have a strong resemblance to those of the Athabaska, 
being of a yellowish color, and more or less of a bituminous character. 
The fossils which I collected in 1875 and 1877 on the Moose River 
and its branches have established the Devonian age of the formation. 
Gypsum and carbonate of iron occur in it in quantities of economic 
value. In 1877, on the Abittibi branch of the Moose, thirty-nine 
miles from its mouth, Mr. A. S. Cochrane, a member of my party, 
found a brownish-black shale, like that of the Athabaska, which 
emits a bright flame and an odor of sulphur when strongly heated. 
This shale is underlaid, as on the Athabaska, by soft bituminous 
yellow limestone, at one place impregnated with petroleum, which 
extends for ten miles up the river. In this district, as well as in the 
North-West Territory, these rocks consist of pure carbonate of lime, 
while the underlying Silurian strata, in both regions, are dolomitic. 
