-30 PETROLEUM IN THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES. 



and to tlie southward of the above limits far enough to give a total 

 length of two thousand miles. They belong to the Devonian system 

 and have a strong resemblance to the petroleum-bearing strata of 

 Western Ontario. The corals of the Corniferous formation are often 

 filled with bitumen like those of the limestones of the Athabaska and 

 McKeuzie Rivers ; and the pyrites and carbonaceous matter of the 

 l)lack shales of Kettle Point, on Lake Huron, under the influence of 

 air and moisture, have given rise to a sort of spontaneous combus- 

 tion like that of the shale of the McKenzie. Southward of the 

 Clear- water River the petroleum-bearing formation strikes across the 

 Saskatchewan, between Cumberland House and The Forks, and, 

 passing through lakes Winnipegosis and Manitoba, it continues 

 southward up the Red River valley, and is lost in the United States. 

 On the shore of Lake Winnipegosis, brine springs issue from these 

 rocks, and salt is also found in abundance near Slave River and 

 between Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake. Petroleum may be 

 looked for all along the stiike of this great Devonian formation in 

 our North- West Territories, including the tract at the eastern base 

 of the high grounds on the west side of the lakes of the Winnipeg 

 basin. 



I shall conclude by referring very briefly to the indications of 

 petroleum found to the south of James' Bay. In this region the 

 limestones have a strong resemblance to those of the Athabaska, 

 being of a yellowish color, and more or less of a bituminous character. 

 The fossils which I collected in 1875 and 1877 on the Moose River 

 and its branches have established the Devonian age of the formation. 

 Gypsum and carbonate of iron occur in it in quantities of economic 

 value. In 1877, on the Abittibi branch of the Moose, thirty-nine 

 miles from its mouth, Mr. A. S. Cochrane, a member of my party, 

 found a brownish-black shale, like that of the Athabaska, which 

 emits a bright flame and an odor of sulphur when strongly heated. 

 This shale is underlaid, as on the Athabaska, by soft bituminous 

 yellow limestone, at one place impregnated with petroleum, which 

 extends for ten miles up the river. In this district, as well as in the 

 North- West Territory, these rocks consist of pure carbonate of lime, 

 while the underlying Silurian strata, in both regions, are dolomitic. 



