476 OFFICIAL JOURNEYS. 
Members were received in the Parliament Building by the Hon. John 
Bracken, Premier, and other representatives of the Provincial Government. 
Thursday, August 21.—Through the kindness of the Union Bank 
officials, members obtained an excellent view of the city from the high 
elevation of the Bank Buildings. From the small beginnings of Fort 
Garry at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers has developed 
the modern city of enormous dimensions in a vast plain of extensive 
horizons. The two great railways, the wholesale stores of towering height, 
and the mills afforded some illustration of Winnipeg’s claim to be the 
gateway of the West. In such capacity it has become the great outlet 
of the grain from the prairies. In a real sense the Grain Exchange is the 
centre of Winnipeg’s activities. 
Members had an opportunity of inspecting the Exchange. The wheat pit or ring 
is immediately within the entrance, and has on one edge a pulpit, opposite to which 
is a platform, above which the prices of wheat at other great exchanges of North 
America, such as Chicago, Minneapolis, and Duluth, are exhibited as received by 
telegraph to those buying and selling in the pit: similarly, messages are sent from 
the pulpit to other centres, giving Winnipeg prices. Adjacent to the wheat pit is 
another for dealings in oats, corn, etc. Elsewhere in the room maps of North America 
and the North-West of Canada are exhibited for the purpose of showing weather 
conditions. Off the main room are situated the Government grading-rooms. From 
each truck of wheat which enters Winnipeg a sample is taken. This is placed in 
three tin boxes. The Government authority keeps one, and, if required, one goes 
to the seller and the third to the buyer. 
After being graded, which consists in finding the percentage of stockage (foreign 
seeds and dirt) present, and then classifying the clean wheat which remains (e.g. 
No. 1 Manitoba, weighing 60 Ibs. to the bushel and free from disease), a certificate 
is made out for the truck-load. The sample tin, containing a card with full informa- 
tion of the grain, is then stored for a time in case of dispute. By this method of 
Government grading a wheat merchant in any part of the world knows exactly what 
he is buying. This, however, is not the case with American wheat. Apparently 
each State in the U.S.A. has its own grading standards, and this affords an opportunity 
of mixing the different lots at the ports, to the advantage of the distributor from the 
ports. 
A geological party was taken by motor-cars to Stony Mountain, about eight miles 
north-west of Winnipeg. The excursion was under the direction of Prof. R. C. 
Wallace, of the University of Manitoba, the object being to study the Upper Ordovician 
rocks of the district. In the large quarry and in the road-section below it the sequence 
observed was, in ascending order, as follows : (a) mottled purplish and yellow-brown 
shales, (b) yellowish clayey and calcareous beds, and (c) dolomitic limestone. The 
shales proved to be very rich in fossil remains, the fauna including stromatoporoids, 
corals, bryozoa, brachiopods, gastropods and trilobites. Among the fossils collected 
the following well-known forms were obtained ; Streptelasma trilobatum, S. rusticum, 
Dalmanella testudinaria, Dinornis proavita, D. (Hepertella) subquadrata, Leptena 
nitens, Rhynchotrema capax, Strophomena incurvata. At the top of the clayey 
calcareous beds large. specimens of the coral Favosites were found in the floor of the 
quarry. The dolomitic limestones are extensively quarried for road purposes. A 
few fossils were collected, including Beatricia from near the top of the section. In 
addition the many curious markings and structures, possibly of organic origin, gave 
rise to active discussion. 
Another small party was taken to visit the municipal hydro-electric power plant 
at Point du Bois, on the Winnipeg River, 78 miles from the city. The existing 
capacity is 67,100 h.p., and new units were in process of installation to increase the 
capacity to 88,000 h.p., while a further large increase is planned. The residences 
of the staff form a collection of attractive and well-constructed wooden houses, with 
church, school, and hostel for single men. The journey to and from the power station 
afforded opportunity to observe the outer range of settlement, and one ‘ shack,” 
inhabited by a Russian, was pointed out as the last settlement between Winnipeg’ 
and Hudson Bay. Near Winnipeg the outward route passed through a Galician 
settlement, in which the lots were small and devoted to the cultivation of fruit and 
