70 NOTES ON MINERAL I'lEI-S OF CANADA. ELLSv 



IcK'ality it was struck in iimncnsc voluiiiP in coinieclion w itli llif 

 borings made some voars ago l)v tlu^ Dominion govcrnniciit tor 

 ]>etroleuin. rlic rush of the gas IxMng so great that llic horings 

 were siispe.idod. At tliis ])lac(' ii has been constantly escaping for 

 the last ten years, no attempt having heen made till recently to 

 check the enonuons waste that has heen going on for all this time. 

 As the area, however, is entirely niiinhahited, and at a long dis- 

 tance from settlement, this waste has hitherto been of less. im- 

 portance than if the area were near commercial centr(>s. Tt is 

 probable that in the near future, natural gas will phiy a very 

 important jjart in the economy of the new provinces of ihe west 

 and will be the great source of light and heat, as well as of 

 power, for many of the cities of the plains. 



It is also to be expected that in certain ])ortions of the plains 

 country, east of the Rocky Mountains, jtroperly hicated l)oi'ings 

 will disclose the presence of oil-fields in that area. The oil 

 fields of Colorado, as at Florence and Bouldei-, ai-e situated on 

 rocks j)ractically of the same hori;^on, the oil tlun-e being fon'iid 

 in the Pierre shales, which imderlie the lignite-bearing 

 Jjarainie sandstone. The Florence oil tiehl has been a pro- 

 ilucei' continuously for more than twenty years, several of the 

 Wells having yielded enoi inoiisly. Vp to the present time, 

 in the western part of Canada but slight attempts have been 

 made to find oil. with the exception of the borings made 

 under government management some ten to twelve year.s 

 ago. in the ai'ea along th(> upper North Sasl<atchewan and 

 Athabaska rivers. .\\ neither of th<>se i)laces, h()W(>ver, did 

 the borings reach the supposed oil-bearing strata, owing 

 largely to the great flow^ of gas (Micountered. 



Prai. 



V('n\ is fonnd in large (pnintities in ncnirly all i)arts of the 



Dominion, and about forty years ago attempts were made to 



utilize certai'ii deposits in (Quebec in the manufacture of a ])eat 



fuel. As the ])rodnct \vas sim])lv pnlpecl ;md air-(lried, \\it1ioiir 



