276 EEPORT— 1886. 



hood. — Mr. Ch. N. Bell reports that frozen soil has been found as under 

 in various cemeteries : — 



Brookside Cemetery on the open prairie close to the city, soil rich 

 black loam, varying in depth from one to two feet ; subsoil heavy grey 



clay. 



On the Higher Ground On the Lower Ground 

 ft. in. ft. in. 



December 23, 1884 . . Frozen to 



Januarj^ 3, 1885 . 

 March 21 „ . 

 May 6 „ . 



June 25 „ 

 January 14, 1886 



. 1 

 . 1 



. 4 



None down to 6 



. 



A further communication of June 1, 1886, states that the frost only 

 descended 3 feet 6 inches on the higher ground in the winter of 1885-6, 

 and had at that date disappeared. It descended 5 feet in the lower 

 ground, but had almost disappeared. 



At St. John's Cemetery in the city. — ' I am advised by the clergyman,' 

 says Mr. Bell, ' that frost has been found at from five to eight feet depth ; ' 

 careful investigation will be made there this year. 



St. Boniface, a suburb of Winnipeg to the east. — The frost penetrates 

 from five to eight feet, according to the season, varying locally under the 

 conditions of the exposure, tillage, dryness, and heat or frost cracks. 

 During the summer of 1885 frost was found at a depth of five feet, and 

 down to seven feet, when the work was stopped. This was in July or 

 early in August. The locality was probably exposed to the action of 

 the sun. 



22. Lat. 49° to 49-^° long. In the valley of the river Pembina to the 

 extreme south of the North-West Territorj^. — Dr. Alfred Selwyn, Director 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada, who has two sons settled in this 

 region, states that those gentlemen have had several wells sunk, the 

 deepest about 40 feet, and have never seen any permanently frozen ground. 

 There is similar negative evidence from Brandon, a little further north. 



It would be premature to draw any general conclusions from the 

 observations thus far collected. There is want of proof of the existence 

 of permanent ground ice beyond the district of Mackenzie's River in the 

 North- West, but frozen soil has been shown to exist at a depth of 17 feet 

 at Fort Simpson, at Prince Albert, and at Yorkton, and it may be ques- 

 tioned whether the wave of summer heat has time to descend to such a 

 depth before it is overtaken by the refrigerating influence of the early 

 winter. It certainly exists also in the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay, 

 on the eastern side, and it is evident that under favourable conditions 

 frost, without being permanent, may in some cases last in the soil all the 

 year round over a wide area, and in other years disappear. 



At whatever level we locate the maximum of absorbed heat, it must 

 be remembered that when the winter sets in, and freezes the surface, 

 which it does rapidly to the depth of a foot or two, the heat will then be 

 abstracted in both directions, and its rate of descent checked. 



No expense has been incurred. The Committee recommend that they 

 be reappointed. 



