1840.] Boring Operations in Fort William, 687 



piece of supposed tortoise shell was found, and subsequently several 

 pieces of the same substance were obtained. At 372 feet another 

 fossil bone was discovered, but it could not be identified, from its be- 

 ing torn and broken by the borer. At 392 feet a few pieces of fine 

 coal, such as are found in the beds of mountain streams, with some 

 fragments of decayed wood, were picked out of the sand, and at 400 

 feet a piece of limestone was brought up. From 400 to 481 feet fine 

 sand, like that of a sea-shore intermixed largely with shingle, composed 

 of fragments, of primary rocks, quartz, felspar, mica, slate, limestone, 

 prevailed, and in this stratum the bore has been terminated. 



In conclusion, the Committee have much pleasure in acknowledg- 

 ing the valuable aid derived by them on many occasions of diffi- 

 culty from the advice and ingenuity of Captain J. Thomson of En- 

 gineers] and they desire also to express their entire approval of the 

 zeal and intelligence uniformly displayed by Sergeant Thomas Long- 

 hurst of Sappers and Miners, during the whole time he was in charge 

 of the details of the boring operations. 



D. McLeod Col. and Presdt. 

 Fort William, A. Irvine, Major. 



Chief Engineer's Office, F. P. Strong. 



May I5th, 1840. W. R. Fitzgerald. 



P.S. — Since the above Report has been signed by the Members, 

 I have recollected a most unintentional omission, for which I am 

 entirely responsible, and which I am therefore desirous of supplying. 



It is due to Lieutenant Richard Baird Smith of Engineers, to state 

 that he has not only taken a great interest in all our proceedings, 

 but has rendered great assistance in carrying them on during the 

 most difficult period of the operations, since he has resided in Fort 

 William ; moreover, the employment of the Galvanic Battery to blow 

 up the lower portion of the tubing, &c. was suggested to the Committee 

 by him, and the apparatus applied in that process, as above described, 

 was entirely on his design. I may add, that his intelligence and 

 knowledge of the subject, enabled him to give essential aid in arrang- 

 ing the materials for the above Report, 



D. McLeod, Colonel, 



Chief Engineer. 



