86 Bibliographical Notices. 



Geology of British North America. 



British North-American Boundary Commission. Report on the 

 Geology and Resources of the Region in the Vicinity of the Forty- 

 ninth Parallel, from the Lalce of the Woods to the Rochy Mountains ; 

 with Lists of Plants and Animals collected, and Notes on the Fossils. 

 By G. M. Dawson, Assoc. R.S.M., F.G.S., Geologist and Botanist 

 to the Commission. 8vo, 379 pages ; with plates and woodcuts. 

 Montreal, London, and New York. 1875. 



Mr. Dawson, during the two seasons of arduous work on this 

 Survey, devoted his attention chiefly to the geological structure of 

 the country ; but, with the aid of his colleagues, he got together a 

 collection of Insects (described by Mr. S. H. Scudder, in Appendix D), 

 of Unionidce (desciibed by Dr. P. P. Cai'penter, in Appendix E), 

 and Grasses, Mosses, &c. (described by Prof. Macoun and Mr. G. 

 Barnston, in Appendix F). Dr. Elliott Coues, accompanying the 

 ITnited- States contingent of the Boundary Survey as Naturalist, has 

 zoological reports in preparation. 



The geological observations extend over 800 miles across the 

 central region of the continent, hitherto geologically examined in 

 some parts only, and for 300 miles in longitude not even geo- 

 graphically known previously. Thus Mr. Dawson has worked out 

 some important links between what was known of the geology and 

 fossils north of his line (from the labours of Richardson, Bigsby, 

 Isbister, Hind, Hector, Owen, Keating, Meek, Heer, Selwyn, and 

 Bell), and what was known of the geology of the U.S. Territories 

 on the headwaters of the Missouri, Yellowstone, Kansas, &c. (from 

 the Surveys for the Pacific Eailways, the U.S. Surveyors, and other 

 sources). 



Lauren tian, Huroniau, Lower and Upper Silurian, and Devonian 

 rocks are noticed in succession, going from the Lake of the Woods, 

 through Manitoba ; and the possible existence of Carboniferous 

 rocks, under the prairies, but probably without good coal-seams, is 

 adverted to. Permian and Triassic strata are wanting. The Creta- 

 ceous beds succeed, but rest on different bed-rocks in different 

 localities. They are not yet known in detail here ; but further 

 south, in Upper Missouri, Meek and Hayden make them 26,000 feet 

 thick. The Tertiary Lignitic beds succeed, as on the north and the 

 south. These are famous for their stores of fossil fuel, for their 

 ■ abundant vertebrate remains, and for their interesting, but as yet 

 not sufficiently disentangled, geological history. These, with the 

 Cretaceous beds below them, reach to the borders of the Rocky 

 Mountains ; but a thick mantle of sands and clays, referable to the 

 Glacial Period and to former great lakes, covers almost the entire 

 surface of the enormous plains of which they are the substrata. 



The capabilities of the country with regard to settlement are 

 carefully considered, and the maintenance and planting of forests 

 cspeciallj' insisted on as indispensable. 



Dr. J. W. Dawson, F.E.S., supplies Appendix A (with a Plate), 



