APPENDIX 485 



showing upon it in colours the northern and eastern extent of 

 possible potato, barley and wheat growth, the pastoral, prairie, 

 and wood region, and the Barren Grounds, the second showing 

 in colours the mineral deposits in the Mackenzie Basin; the 

 third shows the southern limit of the feeding-ground of the 

 musk ox and of the reindeer, the northern range of the 

 wolverine, otter, beaver, black bear and Virginia deer, the former 

 range of bison and wood buffalo, and the present range of the 

 moose, the Greenland seal and of the larger whales; and the 

 fourth shows in colours the extent of the river, lake and sea 

 coast navigation and the coal and lignite deposits. 



Your Committee believe that these are necessary for the 

 proper information of your Honourable House and the full 

 explanation of the evidence submitted herewith, and should this 

 suggestion be adopted, they will feel that with, this report and 

 the evidence herewith they will have done all that it was possible 

 to do since the date of their appointment and the receipt of 

 their instructions, to inform your Honourable House and the 

 people of this country upon the resources of Canada's Great 

 Reserve. 



All of which is respectfully submitted. 



JOHN SGHULTZ, 



Chairman. 



BITUMINOUS SAND-EOCK AND MINEEAL TAE OE 



MALTHA. 



From "Chemical Contributions to the Geology of Canada. From 

 the Laboratory of the Geological Survey. By G. Christian 

 Hoffman, F. Inst. Chem., Chemist and Mineralogist to the 

 Survey. 1883." 



Prom the Athabasca or Elk Eiver, North-West Territory. — 

 With reference to the geological position and general mode of 

 occurrence of the above. Dr. E. Bell informs me: 



"That the deposit is of cretaceous age, but rests directly 

 upon limestone of the Devonian system. The bedding of the 

 latter undulates gently, .while the asphaltic sand lies in thick 

 horizontal layers upon its surface, and in some cases fills fissures 

 in the upper part of the limestone. The asphaltic matter has 

 no doubt resulted from petroleum rising up out of the under- 

 lying Devonian rocks, in which evidence of its existence can be 

 detected. In descending the Athabasca Eiver it was first 

 observed a few miles above the Junction of the Clearwater 



