180 The American Geologist. Augnst, 1897 
REVIEW OF RECENT GEOLOGICAL 
LITERATURE. 
Gcologicdl Suj-vey of Canada. Annual report, 1895. Dr. G. M. 
Dawson has issued his yearly report for 1895. It is a volume of more 
than a thousand pages and is accompanied with four maps of the Lab- 
rador peninsula. The first report is that of the director himself and 
contains a summary of the work. Among the items of interest the bor- 
ing at Athabasca Landing is to be noted. It has now attained the 
depth of 1731 feet. The object of the work is to reach the basal sand- 
stones of the Cretaceous series which at their outcrop westward are so 
heavily charged with bitumen as to Ije called the "tar-sands." These 
were looked for at a depth of 1200 to 1500 feet. But it has become evi- 
dent that the overlying Cretaceous beds are thicker than at the outcrop 
and Dr. Dawson is now prepared to go to a depth of 2000 feet, though 
the drift is expected to reach the "tar-sands" at about 1800 feet. The 
great quantity of bituminous matter yielded by these strata is the rea- 
son for undertaking the work, and if it proves successful the advantages 
must be enormous in a country where fuel is scarce and dear. 
A summary report on the season's work in British Columbia (chiefly 
<m the inining regions) on Manitoba and Keewatin, on the better 
known but still only half explored eastern provinces of Ontario and 
Quebec, on the wilderness of the Labrador peninsula and on Nova Sco- 
tia comprise the director's report, which includes the labors of Messrs. 
Chalmer, Ells, Giroux, Fletcher, Tyrrell, Mclnnes, White, Ferrier, 
Lawson. Ingall. Low. and on paleontology by x*Iessrs. Whiteave.-;! and 
Ami. 
In the .'\thabasca region Mr. Tyrrell reports above the Archean, the 
Huronian, Cambrian, Cretaceous and Pleistocene strata, the last three 
lying horizontal. Their thickness can consequently be ascertained only 
by indirect means. To the Cambrian sandstone and conglomerates he 
assigns a depth of about 400 feet. On the Cambrian area east of the 
Athabasca river no later rocks apj^ear. "If any were deposited they 
have since been denuded away." 
It is difficult to understand the following sentence after reading the 
above: "In the northwest portion of the district Devonian limestone 
was seen outcropping in the bottom of a small tril)utary of the Atha- 
basca." 
The Cretaceous rocks range from the Dakota sandstone up to the 
Pierre shales. Mr. Tyrrell adds: "After the close of the Cretaceous 
period a time of continental elevation set in which appears to have con- 
tinued through the Tertiary to the present." Of the Pleistocene Mr. 
Tyrrell says: "The most conspicuous and interesting drift-hills occur 
in the basin of Cree lake, round Black lake and on the bank of Stone 
river. They are steep, narrow ridges parallel to the direction of glacia- 
tion with the sides joining on a crest that may be less than a yard wide 
