ij 



there are petroleum springs, and large areas 

 of maltha or mineral tar, has led to the eppicu- 

 lation, even among geologist?, tnat coal oil 

 might be f jund la our province. In the east, 

 petroleum is found in the Middle DdvoniaD,or 

 Brian, as ib is now basinning to be sailed. 

 A.ccordiogly it is impos-ible that petroleum 

 should b-i fouud east of L?ike Manitoba Ap, 

 however, Devonian rocks occur, as we have 

 have seen, ab Barnside and at a number of 

 places on Lakes Manitoba and Winnipegoosis, 

 it would seem worth while to search for petro- 

 leum in that westera region. Companies 

 have been formed, one especially, of 

 which the writer remembers, bo bore for oil in 

 the L»ke Dauphin district. Theoretically itia 

 right enough to examine bhis region thorough 

 ]y, but surface indic^tiocs and the opinion of 

 practical miners should be taken as well. 



COAL. 



The first determined effort boaeek coal in Mani- 

 toba was made nearly twenty years ago, when 

 a party of the Geological survey spent a eum 

 mer in the Swan Lake district on the slope of 

 Riding Mountains. Here geology held out 

 hope in the gap between the Devonian and 

 the Ccetaceons where the Carboniferous rocks 

 of Eastern Canada and the Ucibed States are 

 found. The search proved vain. But in 1872 

 Dr. G. M. Dawson, the geologist accompany- 

 ing the boundary expedition, came upon coal 

 beds upon the Souris river. The writer re- 

 members well a company of Winnipeg gentle- 

 men shortly after taking coal claims at the 

 Souris. The coal was unfortunately classed as 

 poor Lignite, and was rather despised. As 

 the west was opened up it began to dawn up- 

 on explorers that Northwest coal had some 

 value in it. lo was found that the ' Gait 

 mine" at Lethbridge was of Cretaceous age, 

 ahd indeed of the same horizon as the famous 

 Nanaimo coal on Vancou^'er Island. The 

 beds of the Pembina Mountains escarpment 

 seem of the same age, but are ot deep sea 

 origin. It was noticed that the Laramie Oeds 

 lying in the nt-ierbborhood of Blackfoot Cross- 

 ing contained good coal, and the S:)uris beds 

 proved to be of the same age. The beds on 

 Turtle Mountain, which is another deposit of 

 Laramie age, also contain a fair coal 

 Some years ago Mr. Huah Sutherland 

 brought a scow load of coal down the Souris 

 from the coal region, and in another season the 

 railway will carry this coal all over Manitoba. 

 The exposure on the Souria river is one 'jf 

 remarkable thickness, and is very ao 

 cessible. No doubt as the seam is pene 

 trated the coal will improve in quality. 



NATURAL GAS. 



A visit of the writer last year to Indiana 

 gave him an excellent opportunity of seeing 

 the importance and uses of natural gas as a 

 fuel and I'ghb-producer. Great use is being 

 made of iti in some parts of Ohio, and it has 

 been founi in large quantities in Ootario 

 near the Niagara river. It is said to arise 

 from the Trenton beds, and is accaunted for 

 by the vast number of fossils found in that 

 formation. lbs origin is as mystierious as that 

 of petroleum. At Langevin Station on the 

 C.P.R , 35 miles west of Medicine Hat, the 



writer saw a stream of natural gas, rising 

 from a boring, which had been used for 

 several years in the section house fvir fuel. In 

 this case the gas has its origin in the 

 Cretaceous So far as finding natural gas be- 

 low Winnipeg is coocerned, our underlying 

 rock is TrenboD. and ib is a perfect mass of 

 animal remain?, bub there have as yet been no 

 surface indications of there being natural gas 

 in the Red River valley, unless it be the 

 stream struck at Dominion City last summer, 

 and this has not yet been scientifically inves 

 tigabed. 



WATEE. 



A very important question for us is that of 

 water supply. Not only comfort and conveni 

 erca, bub health also, demand that we face 

 this question. Our city water works supply 

 is from the Assiniboine, which contains a 

 large proportion of chemical ealts, and is 

 somewhat tryiner for new comers who use it 

 freely. Wells in a city after a few years be- 

 come unfit for use. Many well authenticated 

 instances are found of typhoid fever and other 

 diseases coming from the use of water tainted 

 by drainage. A number of our wells, espec- 

 ially those west of Colony creek, are artesian. 

 They are all in the drift and probably gain 

 their water supply from the area exposed by 

 Little Stony Mountain. These can hardly be 

 be relied m for supplying us with a plenty of 

 water. Figure 4 is a suggestive one in this 

 connection. Winnipeg is 764 feet above the 

 level of the sea ; Lake of the Woods is 1,060 

 feet. There is consf qeently a difference in 

 our favor of some 300 feet, and should there 

 be beds of a porous nature in the Laurentian, 

 there would be a suflScient amount of pressure 

 to give us a good head of water. There is no 

 way of assuring ourselves of the presence of 

 water or of natural eas except by boring. It 

 is by no means certain that we should get 

 either, but, judging from the experience, es 

 pecially of some points in Dakota, it would 

 be worth while trying. As oo the other ob 

 jects spr>ken of, viz., salt, petroleum, coal, 

 and precious or useful metals, the probabilities 

 are entirely against us. The absence of salt, 

 however, is more favorable to our getting an 

 artesian well of good water. 



SUBSEQUENT DISCUSSION. 



When the applause which greeted Dr. 

 Bryca on resuming his seat bad subsided, 

 President MacBebh invited an informal dis- 

 cussion which followed in the responses of the 

 lecturer to enquiries and suggestions by Prof. 

 Hart, of Manitoba C jHege, Prof. Laird, of 

 Wesley College, and Consul Taylor. 



It was first explained that all the formations 

 of the Red River valley, resting on the Liur- 

 entian development, corresponded with the 

 upper and lower Silurian of the Eng- 

 lish geologists. Then, looking westward. 

 Consul Taylor expressed his great un- 

 willingness to believe, that the car- 

 boniferous Devonian formation — the se^t 

 of bituminous coal in the Unibed States — 

 would b9 found wanbing, or "a 

 fault," between the Red River val- 

 ley and the cretaceous formation 

 clearly recognizable beyond Brandon, He 



