1 882.] Geology and Paleontology. 603 



Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the Magdalen islands. 

 The report embodies the results of an exploration from Fort Simp- 

 son on the Pacific to Edmonton on the Saskatchewan, conducted 

 in 1879 by Dr. Geo. M. Dawson, with maps containing all the 

 available information regarding a region of about 130,000 square 

 miles. The Skeena river is the most important stream of British 

 Columbia north of the Fraser, with the tributaries of which its 

 affluents interlock. About 2000 Indians of the Tshimsian and 

 and Tinneh stocks are the sole inhabitants of the region. 

 The Douglas fir or " Oregon pine " finds its eastern limit near 

 McLeod's lake, which empties into the Parsnip, a branch of 

 Peace river. The area of actually cultivable land on this river 

 is estimated at 23,500 square miles. The fossil plants of the 

 Peace river district represents a flora akin to that of the Dakota 

 of the United States, and is the oldest in which broad-leaved 

 exogens of similar types to those existing predominate. Dr. 

 Dawson appends some valuable notes on the distribution of some 

 of the more important trees of the region, such as the Douglas 

 fir (Pseudotsuga Douglasi), which attains occasionally a height of 

 over 300 feet, and frequently surpasses eight feet in diameter ; 

 Tsuga Merlensiana, the western hemlock, which near the coast 

 attains a height of 200 feet, Thuja gigantca, which on the coast 

 not unfrequently surpasses fifteen feet in diameter and 100 to 150 

 in height, and other conifers of smaller size. Extensive lignite 

 deposits exist in the Tertiary on the Souris river, and among the 

 fossil plants of this district are Platanus nobilis (Newberry), the 

 leaves of which are a foot in diameter, a Sequoia, and a sassafras. 

 Dr. Robert Bell contributes an interesting report upon Hud- 

 son's bay, and some of the lakes and rivers to the west of it. 

 This body of water, no part of which is in the Arctic circle, and 

 the southern extremity of which is south of London, measures 

 about 1000 miles in length to the end of James bay, is over 600 

 miles in width, and has an area of about 500,000 square miles, or 

 upwards of half that of the Mediterranean. Its drainage basin 

 extends eastward to the center of Labrador, and westward to the 

 Rocky mountains, while southward it is extended by the Winnipeg 

 basin, emptying by the Nelson river, as far as latitude 45 °. It 

 thus includes nearly 3,000,000 of square miles, a great part of 



tile. About thirt^riveV of 'con Alerabie'size flow into Hud- 

 son's bay. The Albany and the Churchill have the longest courses, 

 but the muddy Nelson, though only 400 miles long, discharges 

 the greatest body of water. 'The Albany can be navigated by 

 shallow draft steamers for 250 miles, the Nelson for 70 or 80, 

 while the Churchill, a beautiful clear-water stream, somewhat 

 larger than the Rhine, has at its entrance a splendid harbor. 

 Geologically Hudson's bav lies within the Laurentian, the Win- 

 n 'Peg division excepted. To the south and south-west of James 



