6X2 
Analyses of Boohs, 
[October, 
Geological and Natural-History Survey of Canada. Report of 
Progress for 1879-80. By Alfred R. C. Selwyn, LL.D., 
F.R.S., Director. Montreal : Dawson Bros. 
This volume opens with a general report by Mr. Selwyn on the 
work of the season. We learn that the explorations and surveys 
undertaken during 1880 embrace the North-western territories 
with the Souris River Coal-fields, Manitoba, the Quebec district 
on both sides the St. Lawrence, New Brunswick and Nova 
Scotia, and the Magdalen Islands. Several collections of fossils 
have been examined, including a small series of fluviatile mol- 
lusks from the Lignite Tertiary of the Souris River, Manitoba ; 
about ninety fossils from the Palaeozoic and Devonian of the 
Pine, Battle, Burnt, and Elk Rivers, in British Columbia ; a 
series of Cretaceous fossils from the same region ; Lower Silu- 
rian and Devonian fossils from the Red River, Manitoba ; and 
fishes from the Devonian of Scaumenac. The chemical labora- 
tory has been engaged in analysing lignites, iron, copper, and 
manganese ores, specimens of graphitic rocks, minerals con- 
taining the precious metals, determinations of nickel and cobalt 
in pyrholite from different localities, &c. 
The Director complains, not without reason, that the sum of 
50,000 dollars annually voted by the Dominion Parliament is 
very insufficient to carry on explorations extending from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, to support a museum, laboratory, and 
library, and to publish the results obtained in two languages. 
Of particular interest is the special report on Hudson’s Bay 
and the adjoining country, by Dr. Bell. At York FaCtory, on 
the shore of this Bay, which has been called the Mediterranean 
of North America, the first rain of the year falls about the end 
of April, the last snow occurs towards the end of May, whilst 
the first snow-fall of the next winter varies from the 8th to the 
28th of December. During the summer the rainfall is at times 
exceedingly copious, 4*3, 6*5, and 7*6 inches of rain being re- 
corded each in a single day. The short summer, however, is 
generally fine, and the soil productive, so that the country is by 
no means unfit for agriculture. Minerals, however, must con- 
stitute the greatest of the resources of the surrounding country. 
The author reports inexhaustible supplies of good manganiferous 
iron ore on the islands near Eastmain coast, galena round Rich- 
mond Gulf, rich ironstone on the Mattagami, as well as lignite, 
petroleum-bearing limestones, sulphur ores, soapstone, and gra- 
phite. Dr. Bell considers Hudson’s Bay and its region important, 
not merely to Canada, but to the entire Empire, because the 
future highway from Britain to the great North-west of the 
Dominion may pass through it. The Nelson Valley Railway 
Company have surveyed the country from Churchill Harbour to 
