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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 10, 



a caleiferous sandstone is described, containing Nueida, Mactra, and 

 other Tertiary forms ; but from the same place are Baculites, Inoce- 

 rami, and Ammonites, which Meek considers as proving the existence 

 of Upper Cretaceous strata at that place. So that it is probable that 

 there are strata of both ages, but included in the same disturbances ; 

 and it is not unlikely that the section from Benicia to the sea may 

 also include Cretaceous strata*. 



The existence of coal or lignite on the Pacific coast, of quality fit 

 for the purposes of raising steam, is of great commercial importance, 

 and that obtained from Nauainio is as yet admitted to be the best 

 in the market. If these beds are therefore discovered to be per- 

 sistent, so that they can be worked to advantage on a large scale, 

 there is little doubt that this coal, even though it be an imperfect 

 substitute forthe finer coal to which we are accustomed m this country, 

 will form a valuable source of wealth to the new British colony. 

 Already it is extensively used by the British navy on that station, 

 and it was found to require only a slight modification in the method 

 of feeding the fires to make it highly effective as a steam -generator. 



As beds of coal of similar quality exist in the Islands of Japan and 

 Formosa, we should thus have the supply of fuel at the extremities of 

 the line of the great sea- voyage, if the route from England by the 

 Canadas, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia to China and the 

 East were adopted — a natural fitness not to be overlooked in con- 

 sidering such a scheme. 



PALEOZOIC ROCKS OF THE EASTERN AXIS. 



The general structural features of the country travelled over on 

 the canoe-route, so far as they can be learned from a single line of 

 traverse, have already been well described by Mr. Keating, Sir John 

 Richardson, Dr. Bigsby, and others ; but, from the complicated rela- 

 tions of the rocks of which it is composed, no detailed observations can 

 be of any value until they are extended in every direction by means 

 of a combined topographical and geological survey. 



The whole of this district is occupied by a primitive axis — the 

 <l intermediate primitive belt " of Sir J. Richardson — which is com- 

 posed of gneiss, mica-schist, crystalline limestones, and other meta- 

 morphic rocks, with intrusions of granite, probably of very different 

 ages, the whole formation being the Laurentian series of Logan, cor- 

 responding, it is thought, to the fundamental gneiss recently described 

 by Sir R. Murchison as underlying the most ancient strata in Scot- 

 land. 



From observations made in the course of our journey, it appears 

 that there are two distinct directions of strata in the rock which 

 compose this axis, marking it into two districts, one from Lake Supe- 

 rior to Rainy Lake, the other from Lake of the Woods to Lake Win- 

 nipeg. Xot only the general strike of the altered and upheaved rocks 



* On the Colerado River the Texas lignite or coal, in beds 4 feet thick, has been 

 observed in strata under those with Eocene fossils, and on a tributary of the Del 

 Norte, beds, 3 to 4 feet thick, occur of good working quality, in true Cretaceous 

 strata. (Pac. Bail. Rep. vol. vi.) 



