[225] 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF 



PETEOLEUM 11^ THE NOKTH-WEST 

 TERRITORIES, 



WITH NOTES ON NEW LOCALITIES. 



BY ROBERT BELL, M.D., F.G.8. 



Senior Assistant Director of the Geological Survey of Canada. 



Tke existence of petroleum at several places on the Athabaska 

 River has long been known. Numerous details on the subject are 

 to be found in Sir John Richardson's Journal of a Boat Yoyage in 

 1848. Some of these localities are also described by Professor 

 Macoun, Botanist to the Geological Survey, who passed through the 

 same region in 1875, and noticed an additional locality on the Peace 

 River, about 100 miles west of its junction with the Slave River. 

 Last autumn I was informed of the occurrence of petroleum in some 

 new localities further north than those hitherto known, by Mr. 

 Hardisty, formerly resident at Fort Simpson, who kindly gave me 

 particulars in regard to them. In 1877, I was able to establish the 

 Devonian age of the rocks lying to the south of James' Bay, and 

 one of my assistants discovered indications of petroleum in these 

 strata about fifty miles from Moose Factory. 



All these oil regions have certain geological relations in common. 

 Having collected together all the notes by explorers who have written 

 about such mattei-s, as well as any information which I could gain 

 from other travellers, I propose to offer a few remarks upon the sub- 

 ject. I shall fii-st refer to the localities in the Athabaska-McKenzie 

 Valley, enumerating them in their order from south to north. 



In following the ordinary route of travel from the southward, this 

 valley is entered by a sudden descent of 600 feet to the Clear-water 

 River at the north end of the Methye Portage, which leads across 

 from the head-waters of the Churchill River. The Clear-water is a 

 small stream flowing westward to the Athabaska. The first known 



