PETROLEUM IN THE NORTH-WEST TEHKITORIES, 227 



Kouge,' a copious spring of mineral pitch issues from a crevice com- 

 posed of sand and bitumen. It lies a few hundred yards back from 

 the river in the middle of a thick wood. Several small birds were 

 found suffocated in the pitch." * * At the deserted fort named 

 ' Pierre au Calumet,' cream-colored and white limestone cliffs are 

 covered by thick beds of bituminous sand. * * A few miles 

 further on the cliffs for some distance are sandy, and the different 

 beds contain variable quantities of bitumen. Some of the lower 

 layers were so full of that mineral as to soften in the hand, while the 

 upper strata, containing less, were so cemented by iron as to form a 

 firm dark-brown sandstone of much hardness. * * The whole 

 country for many miles is so full of bitumen that it flows readily into 

 a pit dug a few feet below the surface. In no place did I observe the 

 limestone alternating with these sandy bituminous beds, but in 

 several localities it is itself highly bituminous, contains shells filled 

 with that mineral, and when stnick yields the odor of stinkstein." 

 Elsewhere, this author describes these bituminiferous sands as 

 resting unconformably upon the limestones, and, indeed, they must 

 be of much more recent age, as he states that " in one of the cliffs 

 not far below the Clear- water River, the indurated arenaceous beds 

 resting on the limestone contain pretty thick layers of lignite, much 

 impi'egnated with bitumen, which has been ascex'tained by Mr. 

 Bowerbank to be of coniferous origin, though he could not determine 

 the genus of the wood." 



In approaching Athabaska Lake the banks of the river of the same 

 name become low and consist of gravel and reddish earth, then sand 

 and finally only alluvial soil. The last evidence of the bitumen con- 

 sists of rolled balls on pebbles of sand cemented together by the tar, 

 which have been carried down by the river. According to Prof. 

 Maconn, these balls are very abundant and in places form beds of 

 " tar conglomerate " in the I'iver banks often two feet thick. Mr, 

 Hardisty, who passed up this river last summer (1878), informs me 

 that the banks on both sides are frequently composed of sand 

 cemented by pitch, which softens in the sun and renders the walking 

 very disagreeable. Masses of the more hardened varieties lie about 

 on the river shores like lumps of coal. 



At its western extremity, Athabaska Lake discharges its waters 

 northward by the Slave River into Slave Lake, receiving the Peace 

 River from the west, a short distance below the outlet. Fort Chipe- 



