44 
DESCRIPTIVE NARRATIVE OF JOURNEY. 
river. Assisted by one of my European companions, I fortunately 
obtained a ricb collection of the fossil fauna in the overlying rocks. 
It was raining during the whole time, but having found a spot 
where some projecting rocks gave us shelter, we continued to 
work during the whole day, and returned to camp with our 
treasures in the evening. 
The 22nd of May I continued my researches, following the river 
upwards, which, owing to the very broken nature of the country, 
was rather a difficult task. I this day discovered two other seams 
of coal, lying below the main seam, one one foot, and the other four 
feet six inches thick. It was not without great difficulty that I re- 
ducecl to order the various strata of this important coal formation, 
for the whole side of the mountain here consisted of broken pieces 
of shale and grits, lying about in all directions, often in large 
blocks, intermingled with coal. Having traced the lowest visible 
seam, I began to dig a pit, in order to ascertain its thickness. 
After having cut into the seam more than twelve feet, and still 
finding good coal, I heard it begin to crack above us. I there¬ 
fore ordered the men at once to come out of the pit, and we 
ascended the hill to clear away the many loose rocks lying above 
the seat of our work. The men had not been five minutes out 
of the pit when a large block, at least half a ton in weight, fell 
into it. I thanked Providence that I had insisted upon their 
leaving the hole, although they themselves would not believe 
there was any danger. 
During this day I collected a great quantity of shale, with verv 
perfect and variegated impressions of leaves of fern and plants. 
Another day was devoted to following up one of the rivulets 
which, about half a mile above, formed a magnificent cascade over 
an overhanging cliff at least forty feet high, and I waited im- 
pafaently for the return of the canoe to go over to the southern 
side of the river. It returned late in the evening, havino- come up 
from the pah in one day. ° & me U P 
Notwithstanding the rain began to pour down in stream* T 
crossed on the following day to the southern bank Wd the 
mam seam there on two sides, and having again re-crossed fi f 
river, met it on the eastern side of the range and tllfl 
this part of my mission. As we had had the Measure of led 
heavy freshes at two different places in the open ^,,1? -f emg 
the y g“ g r e ftat We SWd alS ° Cnj0y the ““ dutiful 
ZrtiitiK' By “orob^l attached^ tc^thia 
report it will be seen how many wet davs we had dn^™ +i- S 
month, and from this it will be understood what discomfort 1S 
underwent m the dank black birch forest. Fortunatelv 
coal field we kept up such a large coal fire that efen ththetvS 
US 
