well. The fosBils are largely of coralline 

 formation and Buggest to us that in Silurian 

 days these rocka were a vast coral reef, and 

 that a tropical climate then prevailed in our 

 northern laiitudes. Oar iimeabone ia former 

 days was used for headstones, as may be eeen 

 in Sd John and Kildcnan ceme':eries, but it 

 is ill suited for that purf o'e, being neither 

 sufficiently hard nor homogentoxis 



The same thing applies to our volun- 

 teer monument erected by the people of 

 the city, and to the Seven Oaks memorial 

 placed in position last summer by the Histori- 

 cal Society. It will no djubl be thought un- 

 patriotic to say that for such purposes our Red 

 River stone is not suitable, 



THE ASSINIBOINE ROCKS. 



When it is remembered that the word As- 

 siniboine means in Cree the "Stone river of 

 the Sioux," it might be suppojed it would be 

 a favorite hunting ground for geologif-ts. And 

 yet this is not the case. While 



here and there the/e are gravel 

 beds and boulders ab the rapids, the 

 rocks are generally heavily covered with drifo. 

 At Burnside, s )me seventy miles west of Win- 

 nipeg, on the Canadian Pacific Railway, on 

 the banks of what is still knofl'n as Rat Greek, 

 a diamond-driil was set agoing in 1874, (see 

 Geological Survey reports, 1874 5,) and the 

 boring revealed rocks of a higher horizon 

 than any we have yet seen. These have been 

 made out to be Devoniau, but there is at this 

 point a very thin layer, and this, ssrange to 

 say, has no Silurian below it, but lies immadi 

 ately on the Laurentian. To the northwest of 

 this point, on the lakes, Devoniau rocks have 

 been described by Mr. Tyrell and other geo- 

 logists. To the west of this we reach the foot 

 of the escarpment marked by the S. E. to N. 

 W. trend of the Pembina, Riding and Duck 

 Mountains. This escarpment marks the east- 

 ern edge of the second great prairie steppe, 

 which lies one, two or more hundreds of feet 

 above our Red River prairie level. This upper 

 level has undeilying rocka of a s'ill higher 

 horizon, and rocks with which as Canadians 

 we had no acquaintance till we came to the 

 Northwosb. figure 3 may show the sequence 

 of rocks and their localities. 



ITS MEANING. 



lo Fig. 3 it will be noticed, that at twe 

 different stages a gap is marked. This is the 

 case in the lower instance at Burtside. Here 

 the borers found, after penetrating 103 feet 

 of drift, bar's of Devonian rock 42 feet bhick, 

 lying direc ly on the hard Laurentian (or 

 Hur.jnian) lo does not of course follow that 

 everywhere in this region the Silurian rock 

 should be misciog as in the case before us 

 The Laurentian rock struck in boring ab 

 Burnsiie is nearly as high above the sea as 

 the top of the drift at Winnipeg, 

 so that there was evidently a great 

 ridge of Laureatian rock, at this point, sband 

 ing up as an ialaod or cliff in the old Silurian 

 ocean. Another g<p will be noticed between 

 the Devonian and Cretaceous. Here should 

 have been the Oarbonifercus rock?, containiog 

 the coal measures, and the deposits of the New 

 red sandstone period. No doubb the explan- 



ation of their absence is, that during those 

 8ge8 when the Nova Scotia and Pennsylvania 

 great coil beds were being formed m ihe 

 swamps, this region was an island standing 

 above the ocean. It will be seen also that in 

 the Upper Orel aieous rocks occur the deposits 

 of coal, from which are sold in Winnipeg 

 large qutnbitieaof Gl-*lt Mine coal, while in 

 the Laramie just above these are found the 

 coal beds of the Souris River, which promise 

 to sive us cheaper coal of fair quality. 



THE CONTOUR OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 



These underground revelations which we 

 have b°en enab'ed to make on the first prairie 

 level, may be embodied in a diagram (Fig 4) 

 showing the relation of theLakeof the Woods, 

 the trough of the Red River, andiheBuroside 

 rocks. This figure indicates, taking a section 

 of the country running in direction E. S. E. 

 from Burnside, through the Rose nf eld rocks, 

 and then to the south end of the Lake of the 

 Woods, an enormous Laurentian trough. It 

 shows also that while the Laurentian at Lake 

 of the Woods is 1,060 feet above the level of 

 fbe sea, this fundamental bed descends in the 

 course of 115 miles to a depth of 265 feet below 

 the sea level ab Rosenfeld, or in all 1,325 feeb, 

 and rises again at Burnside, 70 miles away, to 

 to 700 feet above the sea. The probabilities, 

 as has been said, are, that at Winnipeg the 

 trough is not so deep It seems hiehly 

 probable that between the city and Lake 

 Winnipeg there runs from east to west below 

 the Silurian and Cambrian a ridge of Lauren- 

 tian (or Huronian) rock connecting Burnside 

 and the old Laurentian island, lying to the 

 northeast of us. It may be explained that in 

 the northern half of the Lake of the Woods 

 there occur the metalliferous rocks now called 

 Huronian. We have preferred to use the 

 well known term Laurentian rather than 

 Archaean, which some are now employing to 

 include both Laurentian and Huronian. 



PRECIOUS AND USEFUL METALS. 



It may be well now to discuss the economic 

 products of the region under consideration. 

 It is evident that if we are to seek for gold 

 and silver this must be done by going east- 

 ward toward Lake of the Woods, or on the 

 east of Lake Winnipeg Many claims have 

 been taken up on the Lake of the Woods, 

 companies formed, and reducing works at 

 Rat Portage begun. From assays made by 

 Mr. Hoffman, the Government analyst at 

 O.tawa, and by others, it is quite certain that 

 there are gold and silver in that region. A 

 cumber of assays have been made of rock 

 from that district for nickel, but so far as 

 knownto thewriber without result. As to iron, 

 tihe deposits on Lake Winnipeg in the rocks 

 lie near the base of the Cambrian, and are 

 very large. Many specimens of Hematite, 

 seemingly of excellent quality, have been ex- 

 hibited. A good deal of trouble has arisen 

 in the development of our mines from the 

 dispute between the Dominion and Ontario 

 Governments as to the title of the land. Our 

 great lack, however, is that of capital to de- 

 velop these mineral resources. Probably 

 the requisite means musb come from Britain 

 or the United States, for it is unwise to divert 



