360 Canadian Record of Science. 
it is reduced to the fine powder commonly known as 
Plaster of Paris. By grinding the crude gypsum as it 
comes from the quarries between ordinary burr-stones, land- 
plaster is obtained, a substance of which it is difficult to 
over-estimate the value in a country whose resources are 
almost entirely agricultural. The soil of Manitoba and the 
North-West Territories is very fertile now, but a time will 
come when having raised crop after crop it will need 
replenishing. The value of this extensive gypsum deposit 
will then be thoroughly realised. Lying as it does within 
twelve miles of Lake Manitoba, a navigable stretch of open 
water extending southward almost to the Manitoba and 
North-Western Railway, it can readily be brought to all 
parts of the province. It is also on the liue of the projected 
railway from Winnipeg, between Lakes Winnipeg and 
Manitoba, to Hudson’s Bay, and by this railway would be 
within one hundred and fifty miles from Winnipeg, and as 
the intervening country is very level, the cost of carrying 
it there would not be great. 
NoTES ON SHEPHERDIA CANADENSIS. 
By D. P. Paneattow. 
During the past summer I received from a correspondent 
—Dr. M.S. Wade, of British Columbia—some specimens of 
plants for identification. Among the number was Shepherdia 
Canadensis, the berries of which are used somewhat exten- 
sively as an article of food, and as they possess properties 
which do not appear to be generally recognized in published 
accounts of the plant, it seems desirable to make some state- 
ments of the facts brought to my notice. Dr. Wade writes 
as follows :— 
“The Shepherdia Canadensis is called Le Bron and also 
Sopolallie. The latter name is the Chinook word for it, 
sop meaning soap, and olallie berry. Thus it is termed the 
Soap-berry, from its property, when triturated, to form a 
