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tions along the great natural avenues, by which alone this otherwise 

 pathless area can be explored. Concerning the great extent of country 

 about the Hudson and James' Bays, we have now very clear ideas, not 

 only of the geology, but of its fauna and flora and of its adaptability for 

 settlement, while its topography has also been carefully mapped. 



In this country the deposits of iron, gold, phosphate, asbestus and 

 copper have also been investigated, and much valuable information fur- 

 nished as to their mode of occurrence and value. 



In Ontario, while a large amount of exploration has been carried 

 on in the older and more settled portions of the province, relating to the 

 more careful delimitation of the better known formations and to the 

 presence of its economic mineral wealth, much careful work of a very 

 high order has also been done in the areas about Lakes Huron and 

 Superior and further west, where some of the great questions as to the 

 age and origin of the fundamental or lowest rocks of our systems are 

 now in a fair way of being conclusively settled, while the geological 

 relations of the great copper-bearing series, always a question of the 

 greatest importance in the study of this section, have received a large 

 amount of attention. In this connection, the great deposits of Sudbury 

 and vicinity have been, of late, especially prominent. 



In Manitoba and the North-west, results of the greatest practical 

 value have followed close upon the investigations of the Survey. 

 Among these may be especially mentioned the discovery of the great 

 coal fields along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and in the 

 Souris plains, a discovery productive of the greatest interest in connec- 

 tion with the development and future welfare of that vast area, as well 

 as the careful study of its flora and climatic conditions and the fitness of 

 great portions for the successful raising of wheat and the finer grains. 

 To this agency, also, we mu.st refer the greater part of our present 

 knowledge as to the character of the country lying to the north of the 

 North Saskatchewan, the presence and prospective value of petroleum- 

 bearing strata there found, and the existence of great and, till very 

 recently, little known tracts of land also well adapted for settlement 

 and the successful prosecution of the various branches of agriculture, 

 a country as yet accessible with difficulty, but which, before many 

 years, will doubtless be traversed by lines of railway, while on the 



