•No. 5.J DAWSON— IKINITE FOEMATIONS. 243 



The lower part of thi»fb™a.iou, however, in Nebraska, and 

 OQ the M,ssonr, river, seem, to show an attc.npt at the produc- 

 n ss and of " earbonaceous clay, " .re met with there, espeei.Ily 

 . Hayden s owe»t, „r Du,..,,, Gro„p. F„.sil loaves and stems 

 are also found assoe.ated with those beds, and one lignite occur 

 r.u« m beds believed to be transitional between theCI 

 0,-«j, and the Far, JSe„>o„ Oro,,,, next above it, i, even stated 

 to have been worked to a small e.Uon,, and to have been .< uled 

 . Dy Diacksniitlis with some .success." 



^ There is therefore a possibility that tiie eastern edge of the 



Man toba the lower beds, and those in which the deposits above 

 men .oned occur further south, probably lie east of the escarp! 

 mentof i enibnia mountain, and further east than the Cretaceous 

 formation is made to extend in Hind's Geological Map. which 

 ha,s hmuu-to been the authority for the region. The!e lowe 

 bed,., It they still exist beneath the alluvium of the Ked River 

 ralley, ar« nowhere exposed, and cannot be explored except by 

 boring operations. The possibility oi" the existence of fuel in thi 

 representative of the Bakotu Gr.,., in .Manitoba is much increa 

 If the coal beds of the Upper Saskatchewan, examined last sum- 

 mer by Mr.Selwyn,are, as he -supposes, of Lower Cretaceous 

 age also, for lu this case tii«re would aj.pear to be a tendency in 

 the Lower Cretaceous formation east of the Kocky Mountains .o 

 become coal-bcanng northwards. 



Dr. Hector, many years ago, referred lignite beds observed bv 

 h.m in this region, to the same period, h. vi,,y of these faetl 

 the position and character of the Cretaceous rocks occurring in 

 Manitoba and the neighbouring country, becomes an intereetin-^ 

 and important subject of inf|uiry. ""' 



Fortunately, however, the advance of settlement and civiliz,. 

 tion on the AVestern plains need not wait for the development of 

 these possibilities, or for the tedious process of the planting and 

 growth of trees suitable for fuel. A great deposit of fossi? fuel 

 of still later age than the Cretaceous, has of late years been pro- 

 minpntly brought to notice in tiie Western States, and the nor- 

 thern extension of this lignite formation of Tertiary age islai-elv 

 developed in the Canadian Northwest. The existence of these 

 fuels on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains has loner been 

 known m u general way. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the explorer 



