Reports & Proceedings—Inst. Petroleum Technologists. 287 
and almost always at Jess than 500 feet above sea-level, and it was 
suggested that they had been derived from formerly overlying 
Triassic rocks. For the Trias as laid down, it was considered that 
a content of 24 per cent of iron could not be regarded as an excessive 
estimate, which would be equivalent to 50,000 tons of hematite to 
a square mile of rock, 1 ft. thick, an amount quite adequate to 
account for the iron-ore deposits of the localities described. 
INSTITUTION OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGISTS. 
27th April, 1921. 
“The Mackenzie Oilfield of Northern Canada.” By Dr. T. O. 
Bosworth, F.G.S8. 
A great expanse of Devonian rocks is exposed in the Mackenzie 
basin of the North-West Territory. It extends northward beyond 
the present railroads of Northern Alberta for more than a thousand 
miles to the Arctic coast. Since the exploration of the region by 
R. G. McConnel in 1887, who mapped the general boundary of the 
Devonian area, no further geological study was made until 1914. 
In that year Dr. Bosworth led a geological expedition to investigate 
the stratigraphy and structure of the Devonian rocks and to search 
for oil. Several prospective oilfields were outlined by this expedition, 
and sites for test wells were selected. At length, in 1919, drilling 
machinery was sent into the north, and in 1920 the No. 1 test well 
was drilled, with the result that oil in large quantity has been struck 
at a depth of 783 feet. This discovery well is the first well drilled 
in the North-West Territory. Itis within 90 miles of the Arctic Circle 
and is the most northern oilwell in the world. 
The author has divided the Devonian of this region into the 
following members :— 
Camp Creek Series. 
Clay shales and green oilsands, thickness 2,000 feet. 
Fort Creek Shales. 
Bituminous black shales, thickness 500-1,000 feet. 
Beavertail Limestone. 
Bituminous dark limestones, thickness 350 feet. 
Rampart Limestone. 
Massive fossiliferous grey limestone, thickness 100-200 feet. 
Hare River Shales. 
Calcareous clay shale, thickness 300 feet. 
Barren Series. 
Brecciated dolomites and massive grey limestone, probably only 
in part Devonian, thickness 2,000 feet. 
The Devonian strata in the Mackenzie Oilfield have been thrown 
into a series of bold asymmetrical folds. Four main anticlines 
were determined, parallel to one another, and about 7 miles apart. 
Their direction, where the river crosses them (80 miles beyond 
Fort Norman), is slightly north of east ; but on the east side of the 
