


CRETACEOUS AND TERTIARY—GENERAL ARRANGEMENT. 139 
with carbonaceous clays, are mentioned as occurring in numerous locali- 
ties, and one of them—which appears, however, to be in transition beds 
between this and the next overlying division—is even stated to have been 
“worked to a considerable extent,” and used by blacksmiths with some 
success.* Similar beds are now also known to occur in Cretaceous rocks 
in south-western Minnesota, though not as yet found of a quality suffi- 
ciently good for use as fuel. + 
340. Through the kindness of Mr. A. L. Russell, I have received a sam- 
ple of lignite from a locality near Fort Francis, on the Rainy River, east 
of the Lake of the Woods. An analysis of the lignite$will be found in a 
subsequent chapter. It is said to be found below the water level, in several 
small streams, and though no geologist has visited the locality, it appears 
to occur in too great quantity to be accounted for as far travelled drift. It 
may prove that in this locality we have a Lower Cretaceous outlier simi- 
_ lar to those of Minnesota, but here probably resting on the Laurentian. 
341. The possibility of the discovery of such fuels as these, in the 
Province of Manitoba, might not seem worthy of much attention; but 
there is no reason why in a series such as this, good and valuable depo- 
sits may not exist in some localities ; a probability greatly heightened ifthe 
lignites of the base of the Rocky Mountains, are found to appertain to rocks 
of similar age. In any event, in the representatives of the Dakota series 
in Manitoba, there appears to be a possibility that workable lignite 
beds may exist, and should this prove to be the case, they would offer the 
nearest and most:accessible source of fuel, to the settlements of the Red 
River Valley. 
Cretaceous No. 2.—Fort Benton Group. 
342. The Fort Benton Group, or second division of the typical 
Cretaceous series, is so closely associated with the last, that further 
investigation may probably render it advisable to unite the two under 
one name. This is especially the case in many of the more western 
* U.S. Geol. Surv. Territ., 1867. p. 48. 
t Prof. N. H. Winchell. Second Annual Report Geol. Surv. Minn., 1874. 
Prof. Winchell’s conclusions on the Cretaceous coals (so called) of Minnesota, are interesting as bear- 
ing on a country situated in many respects almost exactly as Manitoba. He writes :— 
1. The rocks that have been explored for coal on the Cottonwood aud Redwood Rivers, belong to the 
Cretaceous system, and do not promise to be productive of coal in valuable quantities. 2. The coal here 
taken out is of an inferior grade, though varying from cannel coal to charcoal. 3. As the rocks of the 
Cretaceous period are believed to have existed throughout the most of the State, the only probable excep- 
tion being in the south-western portion, including half-a-dozen counties, such coal is likely to occur in a 
great many places. 4. The “ Float” coal which hasso often attracted the attention of the people, is de- 
rived, so far as yet known, from the disruption of the Cretaceous rocks by the glaciers of the ice period. 
It is scattered through the drift, and is met with in wells and other excavations, and may be often picked 
up along the beds of streams. 
os 
