October 7, 1909] 



NA TURE 



447 



ores, Prof. A. P. Coleman with copper and nickel, Mr. 

 J. B. Tyrrell with placer mining, and Prof. T. L. Waller 

 with the rare metals. Prof. Miller prefaced his description 

 of the gold and silver mining with a general account of 

 mining in Canada. He pointed out that, until a few years 

 ago, the central part of Canada was regarded as purely 

 agricultural. The discovery of the rich ore deposits of 

 Sudbury and Cobalt in 1908 completely changed this, and 

 the value of the mineral produce rose from about a million 

 dollars in igoi to eighty-seven million dollars in 1908. The 

 most interesting feature of the mineral wealth of Canada 

 is its great variety. Canada is now the largest producer 

 in the world of nickel, cobalt, asbestos, and corundum. 

 ."Vs regards the immediate subject of his paper. Prof. Miller 

 stated that the output of gold from the .Archa-an districts 

 was not great, but it was found in British Columbia and 

 the Yukon, the latter district standing third in the world's 

 output. Gold is found also in Nova Scotia, and has 

 recently been discovered at Prince Albert, in Saskatchewan. 

 The great silver-producing region is Cobalt. The Canadian 

 production of iron is as yet comparatively unimportant. 



Prof. Coleman pointed out that copper is found in many 

 parts of Canada, and in British Columbia some very low- 

 grade ores are worked to a profit. Most of the copper .of 

 Ontario is found associated with nickel, the great locality 

 for these substances being Sudbury, where the deposits 

 occur in the marginal portion of a laccolitic mass of 

 norite intruded between the Upper Huronian and the 

 .Animikie. 



In dealing with placer mining, Mr. J. B. Tyrrell pointed 

 out that it was almost confined to the mountainous region 

 of the west, and that the industry had gradually spread 

 along the river valleys from California northwards until 

 eventually the Klondyke deposits were met with. These 

 owed their value rather to exceptional conditions of erosion 

 than to special richness. Mr. Tyrrell estimated that the 

 Yukon district had yielded hitherto about six million ounces 

 of gold, and might yield another four million. 



Prof. T. \- ^Yaller concluded the series of papers on the 

 mineral resources of Canada with a description of the 

 rare metals. Platinum and palladium are found in small 

 quantities in the native state in placer workings at various 

 points. Platinum has also been found combined with 

 arsenic in the decomposed superficial deposits of the Sud- 

 bury district. Canada is also rich in undeveloped deposits 

 of molvbdeniun and tungsten. 



(4) Palaeontology and other Subjects. 



In addition to the president's masterly address on the 

 evolution of vertebrate life as shown by fossils, verte- 

 brate pala?ontology was represented by two short papers, 

 also by the president, recording the discovery of dino- 

 saurian remains in the Cretaceous rocks of .Australia and 

 the Trias of Brazil, and by the report of the committee 

 appointed to investigate the footprints of the Trias of Great 

 Britain. 



Other papers read before the section were by Mr. E. 

 Dixon, on unconformities on limestone and their con- 

 temporaneous pipes and swallow-holes ; by Prof. E. F. 

 Chandler, on the rainfall run-off ratio in the prairies of 

 Central North .'\merica ; and by Dr. Tempest Anderson, 

 on the volcano of Metavanu, in the Samoa Islands. The 

 eruptive phenomena of this volcano closely resemble those 

 of Kilauea, in the Sandwich Islands ; but while the latter 

 volcano, .according to Dr. .'\nderson, is in its old age, the 

 former shows the same phenomena with the exuberance 

 of youth. A further interesting point in Dr. Anderson's 

 paper was his confirmation by actual observation of the 

 subaqueous production of the " pillow " structure in lavas. 



The reports of the following committees were also pre- 

 sented : — on South .African strata, by Prof. J. W. Gregory; 

 on topographical and geological terms in South Africa ; 

 on geological photographs, this taking the form of an 

 exhibition of lantern-slides illustrating certain aspects of 

 British scenery ; on the crystalline rocks of Anglesey ; on 

 the composition of the Charnwood rocks ; on further ex- 

 cavations on Neolithic sites in north Greece ; and on the 

 salt lakes of Biskra. This latter report, which was re- 

 presented merely by the title, refers to the work upon 

 which the late recorder of Section C, Mr. Joseph Lomas, 

 was engaged at the time of his lamented death. 



NO. 2084, VOL. 81] 



ENGINEERING AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 

 'PHE proceedings in Section G consisted largely of 

 papers by Canadian engineers on a closely related 

 group of subjects, determined by the conditions of Winni- 

 peg. Winnipeg occupies a peculiar geographical position, 

 similar in some respects to Singapore or Buenos Ayres, as 

 the gate of a great productive area. This position, and 

 the bearing on it of the communications to the section, 

 are most easily explained by recalling the geography of 

 tlie country. Canada consists roughly of five sections. 



(i) The Laurentian area, the so-called shield of Canada, 

 is defined by the St. Lawrence and the chain of lakes 

 which extends through Winnipeg, Athabasca, and the 

 Great Slave and Bear Lakes to the polar regions. This 

 vast district lying round Hudson's Bay is in the main a 

 wilderness of lakes, rocks, and forests, swept clean of all 

 cultivable soil by Glacial ice, except in certain areas where 

 later Pala;ozoic rocks have been left over the Laurentian. 



(2) The rich agricultural country between the Laurentian 

 area and the Rocky Mountains. This, the modern 

 provinces of Manitoba, Saskatcliewan, and Alberta, is the 

 northern section, reaching to 60° N. lat., of that geo- 

 graphical area of which the southern section is the basin 

 of the Mississippi. 



(3) The mountain region between the eastern foothills 

 of the Rockies and the Pacific, a strip 400 miles wide 

 extending up the whole coast. 



(4) The fertile lands along the south of the St. Lawrence, 

 New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the peninsula between 

 Erie and Huron. 



(5) The .Arctic regions of tundra and ice. 



To these five sections must be added for administrative 

 purposes another of equal importance. 



(6) The navigable route of St. Lawrence and the lakes. 

 Winnipeg is the gate between (2) and (6). 



This section (2), 1200 miles long from north-west to 

 south-east, and from 300 to 500 miles wide, is of extra- 

 ordinary fertility, and especially adapted for growing wheat. 

 The iso'thermals take a strong bend upwards in this region, 

 and wheat has been ripened as far north as the Great 

 Slave Lake, in 62° N. lat. The fertility of the soil is such 

 that wheat can be grown remuneratively for many years 

 in succession, and where the practice has obtained of 

 allowing the land to be fallow one year in four to prevent 

 exhaustion, it has to be sparsely tilled in the seasons 

 following the fallow years to prevent the crops choking 

 themselves bv their own exuberance. Of this area, only 

 5 per cent, is yet cultivated, but in 1908 this produced 30 

 million quarters of grain, and carried nearly 4 million 

 he.ad of stock. 



So long as the United States grows enough wheat for 

 her own consumption, and until a new route is opened to 

 the Atlantic bv the Nelson or Churchill rivers on Hudson's 

 Bay, the ma'in trade of the provinces must pass east 

 between Lake Winnipeg and Lake of the Woods. Here 

 on the Red River, where the fertile lands end and the 

 Laurentian wilderness begins, is Winnipeg, on the site of 

 an old Hudson Bay Co.'s fort. Upper Fort Garry. A better 

 site would have been at Selkirk or Lower Fort Garry, 

 lower down the river and nearer the lake, but the site^ of 

 the great dep6t was ultimately fixed by the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway for indirect reasons. 



The great engineering questions of the city are to find 

 the best means to develop the agricultural industry^ of the 

 north-west, and to improve the trade routes, especially_ to 

 the Atlantic. The papers presented to the Engineering 

 Section dealt largelv with these two subjects. Two papers 

 on the grain industrv, each of considerable length, were 

 contributed bv Mr. Tohn Miller, an official at the experi- 

 mental farm 'at Indian Hend. Saskatchewan, and by Mr. 

 George Harcourt, Denutv Minister of .Agriculture of the 

 Province of .Alberta. The latter of these, especially, was a 

 naoer of exceptional abilitv and interest, the author being 

 intimately acquainted with his subject and an admirable 

 lecturer.'" He exhibited a map showing some of the extreme 

 points in which wheat has been successfully rinened. and 

 the area of potential grain-growing countrv. The subjects 

 of these papers were not strictlv those of engineers, but 

 the urgent need for improved communications with which 

 other papers dealt could hardly have been realised without 



