IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. 1.0 I.I 1.25 L^12.8 ■so •^" lit lU 2.5 2.2 U 11.6 o^ ^ */; '/ /^ #? ■t ,\ :\ \ ^ A/^\ % - (meaning CONTINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Les images suivantes ont 4t4 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition at de la nettetd de I'exemplaire fiimt. et en conformity avec le« conditions du contrat de filmage. Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la der- nidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols y signifie "FIN". The original copy was borrowed from, and filmed with, the kind consent of the following institution: Library of the Public Archives of Canada IVIaps or plates too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: L'exemplaire fiimd fut reproduit grfice d la g6n6rositA de l'6tablissement priteur suivant : La bibliothAque des Archives publiques du Canada Les cartes ou les planches trop grandee pour Atre reproduites en un seul ciichd sont film6es A partir de Tangle sup6rieure gauche, de gauche d droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la m^thode : , " * 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 BHa ■i . BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN BOTTNBART COMMISSION- GEOLOGICAL REPORT OF PROGRESS FOR THE YEAR 1873. UN PART.] REPORT ON THE TERTIARY LIGNITE FORMATION, IN THE VICINITY OF THE FORTY-NINTH PARALLEL, BY GEORGE M. DAWSON, Assoc. R. S. M. ADDRESSED TO CAPT. D. R. CAMERON, R.A., H. M. Boundary Commissi'-; ner. PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL, 23 ST. NICHOLAS STREET. 1874. . * ■IHHHH 5^353 V V* 8 and his adoption — tho ru]n with which it was iitenaced. " And thu«, indeed, did this man die, leaving sot only to young men, but also to the whole nation, the memory of his death for. an example ol virtue and fortitude," Uow devoted was he not to his adopted coimtiy ! Within its borders ho found realized uud Avith the joy which could fill such a mind Bs hie, that idi^al of Hound and rational liberty whidi had been the day-dream of his yonth — social and civil liberty ; religious liberty well understood, individual liberty in its greatet^t possible extefit, and liberty of thought and speech such as in vainly sought for in Sfnlcs which bcji'^t themselves more complttely free. Who was over more the fiii-nrt of Canada, her more eloquent advocate or wiser counsellor ? As he was, if not whol- ly the founder, nt least h chief architect in the founding and building up of her vigorous stat'j, to was he the ablest defender — the strongest and most highly finished pillar of tiio grand and comely edifiuo, which his hands had so powerfully helped to raise. With whit i)ains did hj not prepare thc_ minds of ixu'.n for the contemplated union? Uow care- luUy «lid he not educate public opinion ? What an amount of harniug did he not bring to tFie task ? But erudition was not all. Lu- c id arrangement of ideas and of facts— ancient as well as modern history were made tributary — the elegance and grace of language were compelled to do their part, — the fiscination of style, conjoined with sterner IorIc, was brought to bear on his labour oB love — the stu- pendous work of building up a state, a migh- ty nation— of giving to thcsu scattered Pro- Ainces h name and a place among the peoples of the world. Nor did he shrink from toil or scik to shun danger. Two voyages across the storm tossed Atlantic, in the cause of the New Dominion, nffurJ ample proof that he was not to be dismayed by any perils to which he could be exposed, nor deterred by difficulty or any conceivable amount of fatigue, when there was question of advancing the interests <'f )ii'< adopted country. What arguments did he not bring to bear against those who so per- tinacloinly opposed the Union and raised ob- stiiles to Ihe future gteatnt si of the united Provinces ! With what eloquence did ho not ontorce them ! Wo have not yet had time to forget that grand and mo^t successful effort of liis oratory,— his oration in reply to the iugen- Lau bnC fallacious reasonings of the Hon. Mr. ll(iWi. His untimely fate, more even than the el«»qnence by which tliis oration isdig- • tiiigulrthed, will cause him to be held in per- pitual remembmnc^'. This rememberance no les than the mtmory of his death, in left cn an example^ to our nation and its children. For Hgea to come it vifiU ^9 green, ancl wjll fjourie]^ amongst the Canadian people. Even as the philippics of Demosthenes, and the classic orations of Cicero, after the lap^e of more than 1,800 years, are earnestly studied in our schools, so will the eloquent utterances of our departed orator and statesman give lessons tcf unborn generations. Believe not, th«»refore, that they who thirsted for his blood, haru put hioi down. They thought to l«»y him low —lower than the dust beneath their feet. But what have they been able to effect ? Truly, too truly, alas 1 they have brought him to an early grave. But to hnfiblo him in reality, to lessen his renown, or silence his mighty voice was beyond their power. By a crime unheard of hitherto in the annals of our coun- try, by a deed of darkness, and cowardice, and villainy unparalleled, perhaps in the annals of the world, they have broken prematurely hie thread of life. But their deed of blood and cruelty, and reckless vengeance, has failed to bring to them the promised fruit. In- stead of promoting their iniquitous purpos.', the disorganization and destruction of this newly constituted state — it has blasted ;their vain hopes ami proved the death blow to the most wretched and contemptible of all factions— the basest, and most criminal, antl m9st irrational conspiracy of which history bears record. 'I'heit victim, meanwhile, is exalted above the ordinar} lot of the child- ren of men. His fame which was only growing while he lived, is mado perfect in the grave, and so firmly established that it can never perish. His eloquence before which all sophistry quailed, and which, like the sword of justice itself, was a terror (3 the plotters of evil deeds, far from being silenced, is more formidable than ever, and trom the ashes of his untimely urn will speak in accents that will ever be heard with rev- erence, and that will never cease to move to impress, to .enlighten the minds of men, and of all men,, not our people only, and their children, and their children's children, but also the men of all generations, and of all nations, so long as there shall be civili^sation and Christianity on the face of the earth. Well may this man's death be likened to that of the aged and patriotic Elcazar. His memory, like that of the heiolc Martyr-Prince of Judah will survive, and like his will be chronicled in the saddest but least perishable page of history, and will be read there as an example ofvirtuq and fortitude, not to our youth only, but also to our whole nation ; and not to our nation only, but to all nations. Like Bome's first Brutus, who, sternly virtu- ous, preferred principle and duty to natural ties, like her undaunted Begulus and her self-sacrificing Curtius, — like the heroes of more recent times — the Tell, the Wallace, the E^oscitiskp, who fearlessly foccd death and 9 ifii 'T"^ ',1 ' ' "i ■,':''-■ i!i'^-.: BRITISH NOETH AMERICAN BOUNDARY 00 :« MISSION. REPORT ON' THE TERTIARY LIGNITE FORMATION, IN THE VICINITY OF THE FORTY-NINTH PARALLEL, By G. M. DAWSON, Associate R. S. M., Geologist to the Commission. COMTBNTS:— Details of Sections on West Souris River. ;' Sections on Missouri Coteau, west of 263 Mile Point. Beds exposed in Porcupine Creek and tributary valleys. General Remarks on the Lignite Formation. Composition and Practical value of the Lignites and Ironstones. The exposures of these rocks in the vicinity of the 49th parallel, first appear in the valley of the Souris River at a point 250 miies \V. of Red River, about four miles E. of the tributary from the south kno'.vn as Short Creek ; near the debouchure of which the remarkable collection of grotesquely shaped rocks, known collectively as the " Roche Perc4" is situated. These beds may underlie the prairie country still farther eastward, as no sections are to be found for a long distance. The banks of the river valley, however, undergo about this place a remarkable change, becoming gently sloping and grassed from top to bottom, and it seems to me probable that this change coincides with the eastern edge of the Ter- tiary basin. Sections are to be seen at frequent intervals on the banks of the river valley, from the point indicated, westward tjthe position occupied in the summer of 1873 by Wood End Depot Gimp, a distance of about twelve miles by the line and considerably more by the river. DetaiU of Sections on the West Souris Rivtr. Section 1. — (Sue miles north from Wood End Depot on the bend of the river.) 1. Fallen bank, no gect5on, about 8' 2. Finely stratified greyiib sandy clay 7' 8. Lignir« 7" 4. Sandy clay, greyisb laminated, including two " leaf beds," each a few inches thick T 7" 5. Yello^visb fine sandy clay passing below to grey soft sand- stone ir 6' 6. Ironstone, a nodular layer 3" 7. Greyclay 1' 8. Whitish clay 1' f < ^- Carbonaceous shale 3' 3' 10. Greyclay . 3' 6' 11. Ironstone 2" " • " ■ ' , 43- 7" The beds appear to be perfectly horizontal. Those of sand and sandy clay, though having the appearance of well characterized layers at a httle distance, and giving the banks an almost ribboned aspect, are found, on closer examination, to pass almost imperceptibly into each other. This peculiarity is often to be observed, in ah-ost all localities where these rocks are found. The so-called " leaf beds " are of a greyish purple tint, and contain iri&ay impressions of flag-like parallel-veined leaves, which, though distinct enough when freshly taken from the bank, it is impossible to preserve on account of the crumbling nature of the matrix. The ironstone, though generally forming extensive sheets, is nodular in structure, and varies a good deal in thickness. It weathers a bright brownish- red, is hard, compact and very heavy, and on fresh fracture is bluish to yellowish-grey. A short distance S. of this locality the bank shows the following section very perfectly ; — [Plate I, Sec. 2.] , s • a / Section^. — =•.•"..■.>>■■-"?;-•■•■■-•■■'''-"■''," '.•..' -/'"'■■.i'' ■ Prairie sod. "* ' 1. Mixed shale and drift 7' ,. 2. Lignite 6' 6" 3. Greyish sandy shale (about) 4 : 4. Lignite 1' 6" .: ;.> 5. Greyish and yellowish well-stratified fine sandy and shaly clays 14' 6. Ironstone (nodular) 4" 7. Greyish and whitish clay 2 - , 8. Carbonaceous sihale 1 , ,; 9. Grey soft sandstone 1' 8" 10. Lignite 1' 11. Grey and yellowish laminated sandy clay &' 12. Ironstone (nodular) 3 ' 13. Lignite 1' 7' 14. Carbonaceous shale 1' ^' 16. Lignite 2' 2." y "rff^ T '\ 10. Grey sandy clay 2' 17. Lignite 1' 6' '^ ' 18. Sandy underclayvith large and small roots badly preserved. 1' 6' i 19. Lignite 3' 3" ,, 20. Greyish sandy clay — — 67' 7" ■I ' yii): The lower lignite beds are of excellent quality, firm and compact, and in some places shew spots of fossil resin. The structure of the component wood is also in many instances very plainly apparent. The upper lignite lying immedifttely below the surface, is soft and decomposed where exposed, being in manj places penetrated by roots from above. It might, however, prove equally compact with the lower beds where undisturbed. Layer 18 is almost the only case observed in which lignite is se^ to lie upon a pretty evident underclay with roots. The ironstones are specially good and compact in this section. Owing to the wearing away of the sofler strata a large quantity of this material strews the surface of the hillside. This section does not seem to correspond at all with the last, though situated only a few hundred yards from it : and if no fault or break in the strata intervenes (and there is no appearance of any such), the horizontal uncertainty of the deposit must be very great. Fragments of a material resembling scoriaceous lava and vesicular in structure are very plentiful in this locality, as elsewhere in the region of country occupied by these lignite strata. On examination, however, it is seen that this is really a sort of clinker produced by the combustion of parts of the lignite beds in aiiu, and the consequent fusion of their proper ash and portions of the surrounding shales. Such fires may either be caused by the ignition of the beds by prairie fires,and fires of Indians' or traders' camps, or by the spontaneous combustion of the lignite where undergoing decomposition at the out-crop. The latter, however, seems improbable, as iron pyrites, the usual cause of such spontaneous combustion) is almost entirely absent from the lignites which I have examined chemi" cally. [Plate II, Fig. 1.] i . In one place the top of the bank shews an amphitheatrical depression a few feet below the general prairie level. In front of this the bank was Strewn with many and large fragments of lignite clinker, and it was appa- rent that the upper lignite bed (already mentioned as being almost at the surface,) had been over this area entirely consumed. Fires similar to these have been mentioned as existing in coal and lignite beds in the western part of America, from near the Arctic Sea to the frontier of Mexico, by McKenzie, Richardson, Johnston, Lewis and Olark, Hayden and other travellers, and appear to have been common in the Tertiary and Cretaceous jtrata along the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains. ' I I 1 ' il ill i! J 1 8 Nearly three miles south of the last mentioned locality, another very good section is exhibited on the right-hand side of the valley, and where the Souris,in one of its many devious windings, has undermined the foot of the bank. This section is specially interesting, as affording one of the best localities for the collection of the shells of Mollusca choractoristic of the for- mation. The section is as below, measurements being estimated : Section 8. — Sand and sandy clay, atratificd, and yellowish In general colour 40 Lenticular mass of poor clay ironstone, raaning out rapidly in both directions 2' 6" Grey sand 2' Shell bed 1' 6' Lignite /. : 2 6" Sand and clay 10' 58' 6' The shell bed is of hard grey sandy clay, and in some places is. very full of shells, which are also less crushed and in a better state of preservation than is usual in this formation. A species of Melania is the predominent mollusc . A second species of the same genus also occurs, with fragments of a PaZuima and Unio, and a C(?r6tt?a, closely resembling if not identical with Corbula (^Potamomya) mactriformis, M. and H., which must be considered a brackish-water type, and occurs in the lignite formation of the Missouri. In the water of the strfeam at this place are several large spheroidal sandstone concretions which have a tendency to split into layers parallel to their flattened surfaces — one of them measuring four or five feet in diame- ter. These do not appear in the bank, but possibly may have been washed out of the lower part of the section which was not so clearly shown. South of the last section, and about one lile nearly due north of the posi- tion occupied by Wood End Depot, an exposure, showing the most valuable lignite bed I have seen in the Souris Valley, is situated. The beds are arranged thus :— [Plate I, Sec. 4.] Section 4. — 1. Drift material about 8' 2. Yellowish and grey stratified sandy clays, obscured in most places by slips of the banli: 52 3. Lignite 7 3 4. Grey soft unctuous sandy clay 1' or more. The bottom of the lignite is about twenty-five feet above the level of the river below, and this part of the section, though apparently consisting of yellow- ish sandy clays like those overlying it, is obscure. The lignite is contin- uously visible for at least two hundred feet along the face of the bank, and seems to preserve unifonnity of character and thickness. Externally it is often crumbling, and mixed with clay which has penetrated its joints from above ; but where freshly exposed, it is hard and compact. It is quite black on freshly fractured surfaces, but has a brown streak, and in many places the structwre of the original wood is still quite discernible. Some surfaces are strewp. with fragments of mineral charcoal like that found in some true coals. Other specimens are apparently structureless, and resemble cannel coal in* appearance though not in composition. The upper beds of sandy clay yield a few poorly preserved shells. On the opposite side of the river valley, near this place, the upper part of the bank shows a good section of sandy clay, below which, and some fifteen or twenty feet below the prairie level, is a seam of lignite of good quality and four feet in thickness. This lignite bed would seem to occupy a position stratigraphically superior to the last. Section 6. — Somewhat further up the stream, and on the same side of the valley about sixty feet below the prairie level, and sixteen feet above the river, a bed of lignite occurs of which the upper three feet only are visi- ble. The bank above it is not well exposed, but appears to consist of sandy clays. The lignite is of good quality but much weathered at the out-crop. From this place lignite was obtained and taken to the smithy while the Depot was established at Wood End. It was, however, found difficult to obtain a welding heat with it, which may have been due, at least in part, to the damp condition in which the lignite was used. The same difficulty has, however, been found almost fatal to the use of similar fuel for smithy purposes, further south, and in the line of the Union Pacific Railway, (Hodge's Report). This seam may very probably represent the continu- ation of that included in Section 4. The whole of these deposits, though in some places showing a dip amount- ing to a few degrees in one direction or other, appear to have no determi- nate direction of inclination, but to be over large areas as nearly as possi- ble horizontal. Section 6.™Sections more or less perfect are exhibited in many places \^ the Souris Valley, a mile or two west of the entrance into it, from the south, of Short Creek, and more especially on the north side of the valley. They show a great similarity, though not absolutely the same in any two places. One of the most perfect exposures seen was the face of a bank from sixty to seventy feet high, and consisted of sand, sandy clays, and hard fine clays, very regularly and perfectly stratified, and coloured in various shades of yellow-grey, grey and light drab. At two different levels harder sandstone layers of small thickness were seen, and also three distinct beds of lignite. The lowest is a hard compact lignite resembling cannel coal in aspect, and two feet three inches thick. A few feet above this a second seam, 10 1 . eighteen inches thick, occurs, and still higher in the series, and about half-way up the bank, a third, of the same thickness. At the top of the bank some large nearly spherical sandstone nodules rest, and have evidently been derived from a superior bed which has been removed by denudation. The clays and sandy clays at several different levels include remains of mol- luscs, but these are very fragmentary, having been crushed by tho com.- pression of the containing material. A unio-like bivalve prepondetates, and gasteropods are comparatively rare. On the opposite side of the Souris Valley, which is here of considerable width, and not far from the last mentioned section, soft sandstone beds> capped by a harder layer also of sandstone, weather into table-like forms. These beds are doubtless the representatives of those which, a few miles eastward, produce the Roche Perc^. Short Creek, already mentioned as an affluent from the south, shows many sections of the lignite strata. The banks of the stream have assumed the most picturesque forms from suc- cessive landslips, and are often quite red in colour from the alteration of the clays by the burning of lignites. One of the most perfect sections is on the left bank, near the crossing place of the waggon trail, and extends from nearly the level of the prairie almost to the watar of the stream. [Plate II, Sec. 7.] i '• • " Section!.— •! -.-■■^ ■-"■'■■ '"^^^^^ ■■-■'•■••'-'.---■' ' '^ - '' ■■■■'-' 1. Soil 1 6' ;: 2. Yellowish coherent sand, grey externally, and holding some much broken 6'«»o-like shells at its base 12 G" 3. Grey clay 2 10' 4. Yellowish and greyish thin bedded sands and sandy clays, with several very thin ironstone laj'ers, weathering orange- ■ , red externally 6' 5. Grey clay 2 4' 6. Similar to Xo.4.,with decayed fragments of gasteropodous shells 12' >' 7. Also similar to No. 4, but with a great number of thin iron- stone sheets 3' , . ; 8. Hard yellowish sandy clay, a few inches at the top carbon- ;. aceous 10' 9. Good hard lignite 2' 2' 10. Hard yellowish sandy clay 2' 7' . 11. Good lignite 4 9 12. Greyish sand and sandy clay, showing lines of stratiticatioa. In some places soft and incoherent, in others with large '' concretions, and sometimes forming a nearly solid sandstone 9' 13. Hard grey clay 2' "' '. '• 14. Greyish yellow clay with many thin layers of orange-weather- ^ , ing ironstone 3' 15. Lignite 2' 6" ^" ' ' 10. Greyish and 3'ellowish hard sand and sandy clay 11' ''!>'.' Section concealed by slope of detritus, about 12' :, ,. i 99' 2' 11 r Small spherical ferruginous nodules, resembling bullets, occur in consi- derable numbers at the foot of the bank. They have a calcareous cement, and are derived from one or other of the sandy layers. This exposure is remarkable for the very gentle graduation of one bed into the next, making it almost impoasible to draw lines between them in a measured section. On the south side of the Souris Valley, and a short distance to the east of the valley of Short Creek, the Roche Perc^ group of rocks is situ- ated. This locality has already been described by Hector and Palliser, who made a branch expedition to it from the North, in August, 1857, being induced to do so by the reports of Indians and Half-Breeds. (Palliser Expl. N. America, pp. 49 and 225.) Dr. Hector did not obtain any fossils from the rocks of this neighbourhood but sedge-hke leaves, and doubtfully connects them with the Missouri Lignite basin or transition beds between this and the Cretaceous. The former supposition may now, I think, be considered as fully confirmed by their resemblance to and connection with undoubted Lignite Tertiary rocks of the regions further west, and also by the nature of the molluscous forms of associated beds. The rocks themselves, which have long been objects of superstition to the Indians in- habiting the surrounding country, owe their curious forms to the weather- ing away of a soft grey sandstone from below a bed of similar rock which weathers yellow, and is rendered durable by an abundant calcareous ce- ment. Both the upper and lower sandstones show false bedded structure in great perfection, though that Jin the upper hard portion is on a smaller scale, owing to the thinner divisional planes of the rock. The capping-sandstone is not hardened in a perfectly uniform manners but in belts several yards in width, lying parallel in a N.W. and S.E. direction, and separated by spaces more easy of disintegration. There is also a system of cross-jointing nearly at right angles. This combination of structures has given rise, under the long continued action of the weather, to the r-emarkably castellated, fantastic and pictu- resque rock scenery of this part of the Souris Valley. The hard belts form tongues projecting diagonally from the grass covered bank, and the erosion of the underlying soft sandstone, parallel to the cross-joints, has in several places produced window-like openings through them. The soft rock bears in many places rude Indian carvings representing various animals and birds, strings of beads, &c. The north side of the river valley, for some way up and down, is fringed with weathered sandstone rocks, similar to, though not so striking as the Roche Perc^. The whole formation would seem to have a slight dip 12 toward the south, and in thia case the section in Short Creek, previous- ly given, would overlie the Roche Peic6 sandstones. The Souris Valley, for about four miles E. of this place, continues to show numerous sections of the usual clays and sands, and hardened sandstone beds, — the latter in one place nearly three miles east from Roche Perce forming a group almost equally picturesque with it. Rather hard sands and sandy clays are seen in several places to underlie the sandstone beds, and one of these was found to be filled with well-preserved specimens of a peculiar Paludina. About a mile farther east the valley changes its cha- racter considerably ; the banks formerly scarped and clayey are replaced by regular grassy slopes, and, though followed for a distance of ten or fifteen miles beyond this point, yielded no further sections. This change I am at present disposed, in the absence of more certain data, to consider as indi- cating the passage from the Lower Tertiary beds to the Cretaceous. The eastern edge of the out-crop of the harder beds connected with the Roche Perc6 also appears to be indicated by a slight, though pretty well defined step in the level of the prairie, which may be considered as the first gentle rise of the Missouri Coteau,and runs about S.E. to the boundary line, which it crosses near the 240 mile point. The spring known among the Half- breeds as St. Peter's Spring lies at the foot of this step not far north of the line, and is probably connected with the junction of the more permeable sandstone beds with the underlying impervious clays. It is possible that lignite coals of importance may exist on a lower horizon than this, and in beds showing a more decided approximation to marine deposition and cre- taceous forms of life, in which case their outcrop would occur still further to the east. It is not, however, very probable that this is the case, as the investigations of Hayden and others south of the line seem to show that in the eastern region the deposition of lignite did not commence till the conditions of the Cretaceous formation had distinctly passed away. Sections on Missouri Coteau, west of 2G3 Mile Point Westward from the 263 mile point, no sections ofeither Cretaceous or Tertiary rocks, so far as I have been able to examine, occur in the vici- nity of the boundary line for nearly 80 miles. The valley of the Souris, when followed in this direction, rapidly becomes more open and shallower. Scarped banks are rare, and such as do occur seem only to exhibit a great thickness of drift material. It would seem that the absence of the harder beds associated with the strata already described had allowed the erosion of the beds to a great depth. The country also rises some- what rapidly, and it is not till after having passed through the drift-hills ■ ) » ., - .-^ ■' ■V. / : ■' ■ ■''.,. . /,, ■j y^ \ ^H^^H ■^■■B ^^^■H ^■■■^^fl 13 of the Coteau, and at a height of about 700 feet above that of the former sections, that the underlying rocks in the form of the Lignite Tertiary series are again exposed. Here, however, in a large valley crossing the line at the 345 mile point, which is the most eastern great channel of erosion that crosses the 49th parallel towards the Missouri river, the rocks of this forma- tion are exposed on a grand scale. The lowest beds seen in this valley are curiously banded clays and shales, clay beds charged with plant remains and carbonaceous matter, and having quite a purple tint when viewed from a little distance, alternating with clays, nearly white, and yellowish sandstones. Above these comes in a sandstone layer which though of no great thickness, has in several places produced curious con- ical mounds by forming a protecting capping for the softer strata below, these again forming slopes or nearly perpendicular steps according to their relative hardness, which, taken together with the remarkable and distinc- tive colouring of the beds, gives a very striking and peculiar aspect to the scenery. Above the sandstone capping of this lower part of the section, is a great deposit of sandy clays and concretionary sandstones among which three beds of lignite of various thicknesses are intercalated. The beds are almost horizontal, but undulate at lew angles, and the valley of the stream appears to occupy, in the main, the centre of a shallow synclinal fold. The upper part of the section in this valley consists of at least 100 and probably 150 feet of clays and argillaceous fine sands of greyish and yel- lowish-grey colours, and well stratified. They contain thin leaf-beds at several different levels, which are prominent from their grey-purple colour, but, though containing very many dicotyledonous and flag-like leaves,they do not yield recognisable specimens, from their soft and crumbling nature. This part of the section also includes at least three lignite beds. The highest of these is about 140 feet above the base of the section, and 3 feet or more in thickness. It would appear to be of fair quality, though much decomposed and quite crumbling at the out-crop, from the action of the weather. • ,..•'■ :.• , . . , il;*--- ,,.y'' . '■ . . - The next is about 120 feet above the same datum, and can be traced a very considerable distance along the face of the bank ; it is five feet in thickness, but includes, at the place examined, several thin layers of carbonaceous shale ; and, though of good quality,in places, not appearing to have the same uniformity in the various layers that is generally found ia the coals of this region. The lowest lignite is some seventy-five feet above the base of the sec- tion and is only a few inches in thicknes''. 14 By diligent search certain parts of this upper portion of the section may be found which contain quite numerous, though in general very badly preserved remains of molluscs, which appear to be such an would indicate the deposition of the beds in purely fresh water. A peculiar angular Pa- ludina and a Melania, apparently specifically identical with that already noticed as occurring in the Souris Valley sections, are the most common. Section 8. — The complete section may be thus represented; 1. Upparpart, yellowish saada and clays, lignites, &c 150' ] * ^ 2. Hard grey and yellowish, somewhat false-bedded sandstone, forming a " capping roclt " to beds below (about) 3 3. Greenish yellow, finely bedded fine sand 15' , . , '^ 4. Soft yellowish sandy clay 2' 4" 6. Greyish and yellowish hard-bedded clay 2' 6 y 6. Blackish thin-bedded clay or shale with plant remains Q • • 7. Greyish thin-bedded clay, becoming darker toward the top ;,' ' (plant remains) graduating into next bed 10 8. Hard,pale brown, compact clay, with very few plant remains. 1 4' 9. Hard whitish clay with some plant remains, and a scattered ^ layer of heavy ironstone balls about a foot from the top 9 ., ;• , , 10. Thin-bedded greyish and blackish hard clays, with leaves, and some fmall bunches of selenite crystals 7' 11. Fine bedded clay tilled with leaves and plant remains, hard ■' and rusty in the upper portion 1' 8 12. Grey hard sand with charcoal-like fragments in some places. 3 13. Ironstone with many plant remains, mostly sedge-like blades, 3 ' 14. Soft grey clay 200- 1' The lower part of the section forms a group well distinguished by its colour and the perfection of its stratification from the upper, and often endures, protected by its hard sandstone (No. 2) when the more crumbling upper division has been removed. The plant remains, though occurring more or less throughout the whole section, are best preserved in the lower purplish layers. They consist chiefly of leaves of dicotyledonous trees which appear to have fallen when mature, in the course of nature, and with the change of the seasons, and floated without violence to the great lake in the fine shelly deposits of which they have been preserved. Leaves and small branches of coniferous trees are also common. They belong chiefly to the genus Taxites, and one variety seems to be specifically iden- tical with that subsequently to be mentioned as occurring in the Porcupine Creek section. Sedge and flag-like leaves and stems are also abundant. The leaves of deciduous trees appear to resemble m(^e closely those figured by Lesquereux for the Fort Union region than they do those ob- tained from Porcupine Creek, and are probably older than the latter, having in some cases almost a Cretaceous facies. i ! 16 ction )adly icate Pa- ■eady imon. by its often more lOugh led in pnous [ture, ;reat feaves Wong iden- [pine |lan^ lose ob- tter, Many of the crumbling hill-tops in this valley have a brick-red colour resembling that seen in parts of the Souris Valley, and due, as there, to the combuRtiou in situ of the deposits of lignite.' The slag or clinker produced in the same way is also to be found here, though it was not observed actually in place. Section. 9. — A section on the west side of the valley, and almost exactly where the 49th parallel crosses it, shows in a bank about thirty feet high, toward the base, several layers of concretionary ironstone, each of a few inches in thickness; The top of the bank, (which is merely an outlying projection from the base of the high and steep slope bounding the valley) holds a seam of lignite four feet thick, with, however, a few shaly partings. This bed would have passed unnoticed, but for the fact that the little mar- mots had been burrowing into the crumbling bank, throwing out heaps of black material at the mouth of their holes; The next stream crosses the line at the 361 mile point ; it also flows through a deep valley of erosion, and may be called Pyramid Creek, from a remarkable pyramidal hill formed of the usual clays and sands, capped by a portion of a layer of hard grey sandstone, the cement of which is cal- careous. It has a tendency to break into large quadrangular masses along intersecting jointage planes, and shows conspicuous false bedded structure. Below this is a tl \nes3 of about fifty feet of rather incoherent fine yellow- ish sand sometimes rather argillaceous; This, producing a sloping bank, is not very well exposed, but constitutes about one-third of the thickness of the beds exposed in this valley. The middle third consists of soft crumbling sandstone or compact sand without any apparent cementing matter, and of which the constituent particles are rather coarse, contrasting strikingly in this respect with the overlying material. It shows evidence of having been deposited by water in rather rapid motion, through its entire thick- but the false bedding is very definitely cut oflf at many different hori- ness; zons by perfectly horizontal planes, above which it again commences. The weather acting on these beds causes the hill sides composed of them to assume a well-marked terraced appearance on a small scale, each horizon- tal break producing a terrace level. The sandstone contains here and there a few badly-preserved shells, among which can be recognized two species of Melania, fragments of Paludina and of Unio. In one place a layer of ironstone, about three inches thick, is seen to run for some distance. The most noticeable feature, however, of this part of the section is the remarkable concretionary character of some layers of the sandstone. The concretions are hard, and of all shapes and sizes. Some are spherical, many are flattened spheres, and two or more of them are often confluent) "T" I ! 16 forming dumbbell like masses or more or less continuous sheets of a lumpy character. Many are lonp' and rooHike, and project curiously from the bank. The sandstone is so soft in some places that the sand-martens have been able to make their nests in it; and where these have been abandoned, the wind forming an eddy, and carrying with it loose sandy particles, has enlarged them into cavities resembling in shape the pot-holes found in rocks below rapids and waterfalls. The lower third of the section in this valley is, as seems often to be the case with the lower layers of these rocks, much more clearly defined, and divided into thinner beds in which dark colours predominate. Altogether the section here much resembles that seen in the last great valley ; the lower beds of this probably correspond with the purplish leaf-be(^ there, and the great thickness of sands and sandstones above correspond in a general way ; though in this place they differ in the absence, so far as could be ascertained, of beds of lignite. The layers of hardened sandstone must also in this case occupy diScrent horizons in the two sections, but this is not to be wondered at, when the extremely local, and indeed often nodular character of the induration is considered, and the fact that it merely depends upon the introduction of a small proportion of calcareous cement among the particles already compacted by pressure. Section 10.— The whole section in Pyramid Valley may be represented thus ; I. Hard capping sandstone, (several feet,) '2. Soft yellowish sandy beds forming a sloping bank, about... 50' 3. Soft sandstone, grey, false-bedded, about 60' 4. Stratified sandy clay 3' 5. Purplish plant-beds with thin layers of lignite and much sel- enitein thin sheets, isolated crystals and stellar groups 3' 6. Lignite, with many spots of amber 1' 6" 7. Purplish bed with a few plants 2' 8. Grey slightly coherent sand, with nodules of arenaceous sel- enite crystals ; ^ 9. Purplish bed with obscure remains of leaves 1' 10. Incoherent arenaceous clay and sand 7' II. Purplish-grey arenaceous clay, with obscure plant remains and some fossil wood 3' 12. Brownish clay with ferruginous layers 6' 13. Lignite 1' 14. Brown earthy bed 6' 15. Grey somewhat coherent coarse sand, with argillaceous mat- ter 12' About 144' The rocks show no well marked dip, but appear to undulate slightly at- very low angles. ' k ^,> a. lumpy i'om the )U9 have indoned, sles, has found in Lo be the tied, and [together ley ; the ]^ there, )ond in a as could one must lit this is I nodular t merely s cement jresented tghtly at- 17 The occurrence of gypsum aa selenite is nearly always in association with plant-beds, and generally with those holding many half-obliterated vege table remains and of a purplish shade. A few miles west of Pyramid Creek several hills are capped .with heavy and hard sandstone beds, a feature quite exceptional in a country so gently undulating. These do not appear to be quite horizontal, but have a gentle dip to the west. They may be equivalent to the capping sandstone of the Pyramid Hill, but more probably are yet higher in the series. Ten miles west of Pyramid Valley, in the upper part of the valley of another stream, yellowish and grey stratified sandy clays are again seen but are not perfectly exposed. At one place a layer of hard ripple-marked sandstone is exposed, the ripple-marks -being about an inch and a half wide and very perfect, and indicating a current North-west Magnetic. With the exception of this exposure, the underlying rocks are nowhere •clearly visible in the vicinity cf the line from Pyramid Valley to Porcupine Creek, a distance of about 35 miles ; one very considerable stream is crossed about midway, but its valley is very wide and with gently sloping banks. Highlands appear to the north, and may possibly show sections of strata overlying those seen in the banks of the streams, but I was unable to reach them, as both in going and returning, the ground, especially in the vicinity of these highlands, was covered with snow, which rendered travel- ling very slow and toilsome. licds exposed in Porcupine Creek and tributary valleys, from the 385 Mile Point to about the 391 Mile Point Many partial sections occur in this vicinity. Lignite is seen in three places near the line, and just above the level of the brook in each instance. The exposures seem to belong to the same bed, and if so, nearly a mile of its horizontal extent can be traced. The lignite and associated beds undulate slightly in all the sections ; the lignite decreasin"; from four feet in thickness in the most northern bank to one foot in that furthest south. The overlying rocks consist of yellowish and grey sands and clays, well stratified and much resembling those forming the upper part of the section in the 345 mile valley. (PI. II.) The best exhibition of these strata was obtained in a bank about forty feet in height on removing the decomposed material from the surface. Section 11. — 1. Soil. 2. Siliceous pebble drift Several feet. 3. Soft greenish sandy claj 2' or more 4. Soft blackish clay 1' 6" B '^rv*: I, ; /■ 18 , , 5. Rusty crumbling aandy clay S 6. Grey clay with some plant remains 9' *• 7. Grey clay with well prAerved dicotyledonous leaves 1 8" 8. Impure ironstone in concretions 3" ..^ 9. Yellowish sand and sandy clay with obscure plant remains. !) 10. Greyish and yellowish fine sandy clay 1 3 11. Scattered layer of small ironstone balls 12. Grey fine sondy clay V 13. Rusty layer with crumbling plants 3" H. Grey sand 4' 15. Detached masses of lignite shewing the form of flattened tree tninks, about 4' 16. Yellowish grey fine sand 6" 17. Grey clay with plaut remains 4" 18. Lignite, not ol'best quality. The grain and form of compo- nent wood generally clearly'perceptible. Bed undulating 3' to 4' slightly 19. Soft grey arenaceoas clay 1 to 2 „ iruyi , , u.: •;:•,:»; r v--- i- i >-:'■■' ' ■- '-'■• " ^bout 31' The vegetable remains imbedded in the rocks overlying the lignite are mostly those of deciduous trees, and in certain beds are very perfectly pre- served. Lignite from this section was used for camp fires, in the absence of wood, but did not burn very freely, as it was taken damp from the bed and piled on the ground without any provision for draught from below. The most interesting and important section, however, in this region, is that which occurs in a valley joining that of Porcupine Creek from the west, which exhibits a bed of lignite eighteen feet in thickness, and has also yielded some of the most perfect and curious remains of plants. The bank in which this out-crop is situated is over half-a-mile south of the line. The beds are arranged thus : (Plate I, Sect. 12.) S€Ctionl2. — "■■ .-■;;-:-.■;>• ^'i-.^ ■;^'',' ;- ■•■■• •' ;■' ' ■ ^■•■■ 1. Surface soil I' ' 2. Siliceous pebble drift 1' 6",, 3. Yellowish and grey sandy clays well stratified, but some- ^ whatsoft, about 9 4. Lignite - — 9' ' '' . 5. Banded clays, yellowish, grey anl purple, with well preserved .. :,,, > ^ , remains of plants and in some layers much c-ystalline ••. - gypsum 5' •,■• ' C. Lignite, weathering soft, some layers laminated, others rotten and brownish. Forms a steep slope 10' ".^ ■ ■•■ 7. Lignite, hard compact, horizontally laminated, but also breaking into large cubical blocks along Tertical planes.... 8' 8. Soft grey sandstone much jointed) and breaking out in pieces bounded by plane faces, some vertical and soma oblique. s ; Holds root-like remains and gives issue to springs of water.. 6' 40' ^' 19 Though undulating a Httle, tho strata have no truo dips, and arc as nearly aa possible horizontal on the largo side. The lower part of the lignite bed is very compact and tough under the pick ; it holds in somo layers many drops of amber. The jointage planes form a conspicuous feature, and were not noticed in anything Hke tho same perfection in any other lignite bods examined. Tho divisional pianos cause the coal to break off in largo cubical pieces which encumber tho stream at its base. Some of them shew thin seams of white gypsum, and in one case a thin film of iron pyrites was detected, being the first appear- ance of this mineral in connection with these lignite deposits. The plants in layer (5) are in a beautiful state of preservation, and, when the clay is first split open, show every vein-mark in perfection, not only in the larger and coarser leaves but in delicate ferns which are here unusually common. The matrix is, however, unfortunately very soft ; it crumbles easily, and tends to crack on drying. This section also exhibits the first and only distinct instance of disloca- tion which has been observed to affect these beds. Tho eighteen foot lignite and associated strata are seen to have been brought to their present position by a downthrow fault, and on the other side of the Creek their place is taken by underlying sandy clays. (Plate I.^ The southern side of the valley, opposite this great lignite bed, is broken down and forms a gentle though irregular slope, which is encumbered by many large, strangely shaped and coloured blocks of stone, much harder than any rocks occurring in the neighbourhood, and in pieces larger than the drift-blocks found in the region. They proved on inspection to consist of masses of beds such as those associated with the lignite, but indurated by its combustion, which has also caused the interruption in the edge of the valley. About a fourth of mile east on the same valley the great lignite is again exposed, and apparently in much the same development and association. A considerable number of specimens of fossil plants from the vicinity cf Porcupine Creek have been preserved, though all in a more or less shattered condition. 1 am indebted to Principal Dawson for a preliminary examination of these. The following genera are represented by clearly recognisable specimens : Onoclea, SphenopteriSjPhragmites, Trapa ? Thuja, Sequoia, Glyptostrobus, Populus, Salix, Fagus, Alnus, Platanus, Rubus ? Hedera ? As far as can be ascertained these generic forms and some of the species are identical with those characteristic of the Tertiary beds of the Western States, which have been catalogued and described by Lesquereux and Newberry. The fern Onoclea sensibilis is especially 20 abundant. It is a species still living, and recognized by Newberry in the Tertiary of Nebraska, and by the Duke of Argyll in that of the Island of Mull. The Thuja, also common, is identified by Newberry with his Th. ariiculata. It will be well to leave the specific determination of these leaves until the appearance of the volume now in the press on the plants of the U.S. Tertiary by Dr. Newberry. In the meantime they maybe stated to correspond very closely with the plants described as occurring in connection with the Lignite Tertiary, called by Hayden, in its southern extension, the Fort Union group. General Hemarls on the Lignite Formation. 4 It would seem premature at the present time to enter very fully intc the discussion of the general relations and limits of the lignite-bearing series of rocks, as another season will probably afford much additional information of value in this direction. The formation is, however, undoubtedly an extension of the Great Lignite or Fort Union group of strata of Hayden, which, as developed in the West- ern States and Territories, has been fully described by him in his various reports (Annual Reports Geol., Surv. Territ., 1868 to '72). These strata, i amediately succeeding the Cretaceous rockS) are the lowest American representatives of the Tertiary series, and have been called for this reason Eocene, though it is impossible to affirm that their deposit was more than approximately synchronous with that of the Eocene as constituted in Europe. The flora of the Fort Union gi'oup indeed, according to Newberry and Lesquereux, who have examined the collections of the various western expeditions, has, when compared with European forms, a Miocene aspect, and the animal remains, which are chiefly those of fresh- water molluscs, do not form a very trustworthy criterion in regard t? uge. The advent of the Tertiary period in the western basin of America appears to have been contemporaneous with the change of the inland sea from salt-water to fresh-water conditions. The change in character of the Fauna is thus, taken broadly, a good mark by which to distinguish rocks of Cretaceous and Tertiary age, though it would appear exceedingly probable that the Cretaceous forms were brought to a rather abrupt end by the change in physical conditions, so far as regards the area in question. It will suffice then at present to correlate these beds with those of Hayden's Lowest Tertiary or Fort Union group, which is largely developed southward in Dakota and Montana, and to which also the smaller isolated lignite basins, now beginning to be 21 largely worked in the neighbourhooJof the Union Pacific R-R. in VVyominj^, &(^, are believed to appertain, though it is probable that a part of these may ultimately be attached to the Upper Cretaceous with which the lower beds show a marked stratigraphical and zoological connection. The sections in the vicinity of the Roche Perc^ seem to belong to the lowest part of this formation which is exposed in the vicinity of the line, and con- tain the only mollusc found which is known to live in salt or brackish waters, the Corbula already mentioned. Hayden's sections, however, show that southward, over large areas, the Lowest Tertiary beds are charac- terized by abundant remains of Ostrea associated with lignites— a circum- stance which would indicate still more markedly marine conditions, and which would appear to lead to the conclusion that there may be a small por- tion of the formation still lower than the Roche Perc^ series which has been so soft as to yield to eroding forces and become concealed beneath the drift formations. The beds in the Souris Valley and near the Roche Perc^ are in great measure arenaceous, and many of them appear to indi- cate rather disturbed water, both from this fact and the frequency with which some of the molluscs have sustj^ined fractures of their shells during life. Nothing, however, in the nature of a conglomerate is found, and even the sandstones can rarely be considered coarse. The beds here are also not of great thickness individually, and succeed each other rapidly, as will be seen by the sections. In this they resemble che lowest part of the sections seen further west in the 345 Mile Valley and Pyramid Creek, though, from the great distance entirely concealed by drift deposits be- tween Roche Perc^ rocks and these exposures, it is impossible to identify any particular bed or series of beds. Indeed from the estuarine character of the formation, as a whole, and the rapidity with which individual strata are seen to change when followed for short distances, no such close paral- lelism is to be expected. The sections exhibited in 345 Mile Valley and in Pyramid Creek, 6 miles apart, show, however, a very close general re- semblance, each being composed at the base of purplish and whitish sands and sandy clays, passing upward into beds of almost pure and but slightly coherent sand, and the highest teds seen being formed of yellowish soft arenaceous clays without much evident stratification. The furthest west exposures seen, those in Porcupine Creek and neighbourhood, may belong to a still higher part of the series, though it is probable that no very great thickness of beds is represented by the sections over the entire area examined. The rocks in many places seem to be absolutely horizontal, but very generally show slight dips in one direction or other, which, when fol- lowed a short distance, prove to become reversed and to arise merely from a gentle undulation of the beds. ii 22 A scarped bank rarely presents itself in the area covered by this for- ' mation without exhibiting one or more beds of lignite, and these vary in thick- ness from a few inches to eighteen feet. The entire number of beds thus seen was very great, but, in the absence of trustworthy data with regard to their equivalency, it would be misleading to enumerate them. The lignites seldom show intercalation of shale or sand, and, though some of them may have been formed from accumulations of drift-wood in shallow water it is dif- ficult to understand how such collection could go on for long periods with- out the contemporaneous deposit of sandy or muddy matters which would have been suspended in waters moving with suflScient force to convey the wood. It would also appear difficult under this theory to explain the regular and even superposition of the sandy and clayey beds which overhe the lignites, and the fact that these do not send extensions downward into them, as they must have done if formed above a tangled mass of trunks and branches of trees. It seems likely, therefore, (though layers like true root-beds were only observed in one or two instances to underhe the lignit bed") that at least the majority of the lignite beds were produceei by the growth and partial decay of trees, and also perhaps of peaty matter from swamp mosses, in the positions which they now occupy. Their method of formation would, therefore, agree with that already proved for coals of the true Carboniferous formation. This is rendered more probable by the circumstance that lignite beds are sometimes immediately covered by beds holding leaves of trees, ferns, and grasses, a fact which has been noted by Hayden and others with regard to the lignite beds further south, and which is also found to obtain with coal beds of the Carboniferous period. Composition and ^Practical Value of the Lignites and Ironstones. The coaly material of the beds above described is, for the most part, true lignite,as distinguished from brown coal, being composed of flattened and car- bonized tree-trunks. The fossil woods associated with the plants, and which can be recognized in the mass of the lignites themselves, are all Conifer- ous, and may, from their structure, have belonged to the species of Thuja and Sequoia represented by the leaves found in the accompany- ing clays. I have made some assays of the lignites, for the purpose of ascertaining as far as possible their economic value, and in doing so have not thought it necessary to confine my examination to those beds only which are of workable thickness, as a general comparison of the various seams, thick or thin, is of more value in giving an idea of the average quality of the lignites of the formation now known and those which further atm^ •exploration may bring to light over the same region. The analyses, therefore, include a selection from the various sections, and several beds of good quality and thickness are unrepresented. The lignites all contain, when in the bed, a very considerable percentage of hygroscopic water, and even those which are very hard and tough under the pick at first, when exposed to the air tend from the loss of water to crack into angular fragments or split up along the layers of deposition. The same phenomenon has been observed with similar lignites mined on the Union Pacific R.R., and it is found necessary to prevent loss from this slack- ing to convey them to their destination as soon as practicable after their extraction from the mine. The lignites generally present a rather unpromising appearance in the banks where they crop out, from the fact of their having undergone superficially a certain amount of Assuring and the interstices being filled with clay from above. When followed inward a few- feet however, they usually become quite solid and compact. They vary a good deal in appearance, some beds having a dull lustre almost like that of cannel coal ; others, and this is perhaps the most common form, have the same black colour on faces of fracture, but tend rather to split parallel to planes of deposit andshow on careful examination distinct tcaces of the medul- lary rays and rings of growth of the component wood. Other samples have almost a shaly appearance, caused by numerous layers of mineral charcoal, which is present in small quantities in nearly all the beds. Amber spots are common but generally quite small. The lignites do not soil the fingers like ordinary bituminous coal. Their powder is generally a dark shade of brown but sometimes quite black. They all yield easily a dark brown solution when treated with caus- tic potash. The lignites from various beds might be designated by such names as pitch coal, hroivn coal, lamellar brown toal, &c., but it seems better, as they pass by easy gradations from one variety to another, to class them under the generic term lignite. In this connection it should be mentioned that though some authors have persistently used the term coal for the fuels of the Tertiary formations fur- ther south, the name is mineralogically inapplicable, from their composition, to all but one or two which appear to have been altered by local outbursts of igneous rock. Though giving below the actual amount of hygroscopic and combined water as found by analysis, it must be premised that it depends entirely on the conditions to which the lignites have previously been subjected, and that, by prolonged exposure to dry air, it might have been in many cases very considerably reduced. I have, therefore, thought it advisable in another place to reduce the results of all analyses to correspond to a certain percentage of moisture, that they may be better compared with each other and with foreign lignites- The high percentage of volatile combustible matters renders the difference due to slow and rapid coking in some cases very marked. iSouria Valley. Section 6. Lowest lignite, two feet three inches thick. Conchoidal fracture with rather dull surfaces and resembling cannel coal^ ash reddish-white. By rapid coking. Water .12.07 Fixed carbon 45.44 38.90 Volatile matter 39,74 Ash 2.75 100.00 Sourii Valley. Section 2. Layer 19. A weathered specimen separating into laminae horizontally. Clay from overlying bed filling fissures. Ash yellow-brown. By rapid coking. Water 13.94 Fixed carbon 45.27 38.35 Volatile matter 36.00 Ash 6.79 100.00 Souris Valley. Section 2. Layer 17. Weathered specimen. Black,. compact, with shining faces. Ash yellowish. By rapid coking. Water : 12.67 Fixed carbon 31.39 28.01 Volatile matter 49.52 Ash «42 • ' _^ ''.-... 100.00 Sourii Valley. Section 2. Layer 10. Lustre dull, separating along horizontal planes. Ash light yellowish. By rapid coking. Water 14.90 Fixed carbon 36.94 36.68 Volatile matter 42.98 Ash 5.18 100.00 Sourie Valley. Section 2. Layer 2, A weathered specimen soft and crumbling. Ash greyish-white. By rapid coking.. Water 17.97 Fixed carbon 32.86 30.10 Volatile matter 44.66 Ash 4.61 ♦ 100.00 m Jertain other ustible ) cases thick. 1 coal, 'ating Ash lack. Ion iioriii soft Souris Valley. Section 5. Black compact lignite with muci . ^^oody structure apparent. Ash yellow. Water 14.73 ^^ "'P'*^ '■°^''"i- Fixed carbon 42.43 34.07 Volatile matter 39.99 Ash... 2.80 100.00 Souris Valley. Section 4. 1 foot seam. Hard compact black lignite, breaking with pseudo-conchoidal fracture, and showing traces of structure of wood. Ash yellowish-white, light. „, . By rapid coking. Water 15.11 ' "^ * Fixea carbon 47.57 41.07 Volatile matter 32.76 Ash 4.56 100.00 Section 8 Loivest Lignite. Weathered specimen, crumbling. Ash grey. ,,, ^ By rapid coking. ^\ater I8.74 Fixed carbon 35.69 30.04 Volatile matter 40.54 . Ash 5.03 - 100.00 Section 8. Middle Lignite. Weathered specimen. Soft, breaking inta layers along deposition surfaces. Largely composed of comminuted char- coal-like fragments. .„ By rapid coking. Water 16.28 Fixed carbon 46.25 29.18 Volatile matter 33.19 Ash 4.28 Section 8. Upper Lignite. Out-crop specimen. Crumbling. Tends to break into layers parallel to deposition planes. „ By rapid coking. Water 15.20 Fixed carbon 34.45 27.G1 Volatile matter 44.43 Ash 6.92 100.00 Section 9. Out-crop specimen. Brownish. Fracture almost conchoidaU Ash yellowish-white. By rapid coking. Water 16.51 Fixed carbon 37.12 28.44 Volatile matter 42.65 Ash 4.72 100.00 ■AIBO iswasmn^fm Section 12. Lower part 0/ IS foot scam. Tough, compact lignite, separating into horizontal layers. Much amoer in small spots, a good deal of woody structure apparent and some mineral charcoal. Ash light-grey. I , . By rapid coking. Water 12.05 Fixed carbon 40.18 41.03 Volatile matter 35.12 Ash G.65 100.00 Section 12. Upper part of \S foot scam. Out-crop specimen, crumb- ling. Ash white. By rapid coking. Water 16.87 Fixed carbon 34.32 24.30 Volatile matter 37.51 Ash 11.30 100.00 The hgnites, it will be observed, are on the whole uniform in composition and contain an average amount of over 40 per cent, fixed carbon, when tlie water content is estimated at 12 percent. They thus fall somewhat behind the lignites given in Table II, from Wyoming, Utah, &c., and which are found in proximity to the Rocky Mountains and parallel ranges, and have probably been somewhat improved by metamorphism simultaneous with their elevation. The lignites here described, however, gain some advantage in a practical point of view from occurring in a horizontal position and out- crop- ping in the sides of valleys in such a way that they might be worked by simple adits, avoiding the expense and trouble necessary when vertical sinking has to be resorted to in the first instance, as in the case of some of the other localities named, where the beds are often highly inclined or nearly vertical. It is a disadvantage, however, that none of those yet found yield a coherent coke, as is the case with one or two of those of nearly the same age in the United States. The lignites examined merely shrink somewhat in size during'^the expul- sion of the volatile combustible matter, and turn out of the crucible in a dry incoherent powder. The volatile matter is, as might be expected, comparatively poor in luminous gases, and the Hgnites would, consequently, be of little use in the manufacture of illuminating gas. ' " ^ "" The ash is generally of pale colours ; grey and white, passing into yel- lowish-white, being the prevailing shades. One or two only yield a deeply- coloured ash, wihch is then of a brick-red colour. It is small in amount in most of the specimens, and does not usually appear of a nature to form ■* -MiaiM 27 ■ * troublesome clinker. The lignites when burning yield a peculiar empyreu- matic odour but no smell of sulphur, and indeed, as might be foreseen from the nature of the ash, the quantity of sulphur present is very small. In the table below the analyses of all the lignites are calculated to cor- respond with a quantity of water, combined or hygroscopic, equal to twelve per cent., which, may I think, be accepted for the samples examined as the practical limit of desiccation in dry air at ordinary temperatures. This will allow of a more accurate comparison of the value of those from differ- ent parts of the series. , , TABLE L RESULTS OF ASSAYS OF LIGNITES, WATER BEING ESTIMATED AT AN AVERAGE OF 12 PER CENT. Locality. "> c ■^ o *? — « i 255 263 263 203 203 262 263 344 344 344 346 390 390 o m O fl g a O o K 3 = 1 _o S "3 > < Remarks on ash. 1 Souris Valley. Sect. 6... 2 II II 11 2... 3 " " ' " 2... 4 II ti "2 6 " " •' 2... 6 " " " 5... 7 1! -(( II 4 8 Big Valley. " 8... , 9 " " " 8... 10 " " " 8... 11 " " '' 9... 12 PorcuDine Valley Lower part " 12.... 13 Upper part " 12... 2 3 3 2 I 5' • 1 6 6 7 3 a few in chet 5 3 4 18 s o « S a! a O u 45.48 46.18 31.51 38.08 34.82 43.72 49.31 38.66 48.61 36.92 38.63 46.20 36.33 39.77 35.90 50.02 44.57 48.30 42.40 33.98 43.92 34.90 44.95 44.48 35.14 39 97 2.76 5.92 6.47 5.35 4.88 2.88 4.71 5.43 4.49 6.13 4.89 6.66 11.70 Reddish-white. Yellow brown. Yellowish. Light Yellowish, Greyish-white. Yellow. Yellowish-white. Grey. Grey. White. Yellowish-white. Light grey. While. Averai^e 41.1 41.41 5.55 It should be stated that, with the exception of two or three specimens, all those analysed were mere out-crop samples, and, from the facility with which these lignite coals deteriorate under atmospheric influences, show a MBB^.ul^MlriBi result much inferior to that vrhich would be obtained from the same bods at some depth. Nos. 1 and 12 with one or two others were obtained from portions of the beds recently exposed by slips of the bank, and probably represent more fairly the quality of the better class of lignites. The total percentage of carbon, inclusive of that which passes off with the volatile matters, varies probably between 60 and 70 per cent. The lignites do not appear to be suited for smithy purposes, and the smiths who tried thera reported it diflScult to obtain a welding heat. The same fault has been found, I believe, with even the best classes of similar fuels found in the vicinity of the Union Pacific Railway, and arises, no doubt, from the great proportion of volatile combustible matter to fixed carbon, and the quantity of hygroscopic and combined water. As the lignites do not coke, they would appear to b^unsuited for the smelting of iron in the blast furnace, though it is possible they might be economically employed for this purpose in the raw state, especially if mixed with a proportion of wood charcoal and burned in furnaces of not too great height.* They are perfectly suited for puddling iron, and the metallurgical treatment of various ores, if burned in gas furnaces. Similar fuels have already been extensively em- ployed in this way at Golden City and other localities in Colorado, and in the mining districts of the Southern Rocky Mountain region, and appear several years ago to have commanded prices ranging from $2.00 to $4.00 per ton at the pit's mouth. Similar and even inferior lignites are extensively used for steam purposes in various p&rts of the world, and in Wyoming, Utah, &c., are employed on the railways, though locomotives o^ popaojui burn those fuels, in order to give satisfactory results, must have, compared to those worked on bituminous coal, larger grates and fire-boxes, and larger boiler-tubes, giving a greater heating surface compared with the horse-power. • Excellent charcoal is, I believe, made from similar Lignites in Germany, by treating them in coking ovens in the state in which they are extracted from the mine . 'V r, v^t., -••'•» ■v."' ■ ■■■■M I f < 29 TABLE II. SHOWING COMPOSITION OF LIGNITES AND OTHER FUELS FOR COMPARISON WITH LIGNITES IN TABLE I. Locality. 1 s -s 1 3 "o > Colour of ash. Analyst. 1. Wood, average of air-dried.. LioNiTBs, United States, 2. Golden Citr. C.T 18.55 13.43 6.80 8.10 13.83 3.00 16.00 8.12 12.60 26.15 25.69 45.57 49.72 47.67 44.44 43.50 41.50 53.23 55.20 39.12 44.11 67.3 32.6 59.18 60.33 67.57 61.95 53.99 37.15 35.48 34.60 35.88 41.50 38.00 36.65 27.85 19.15 50.80 with water 31.80 57.40 33.32 31.27 23.81 25.87 1.77 3.86 8.00 9.67 5.83 12.00 4.50 2.00 4.35 15.58 4.99 0.90 10.00 3.90 5,17 5.49 10.42 Grey. Light grey. Grey. Orange. Light grey. J. T. Hodge. (1 3 Carbon Stn . W T 4. Eranston. Utah 0. D. Allen. J. T. Hodge. A. C. Peale. A. L. Ford. J. T. Hodge. Srhrntfpr 5. Murphy's,RalstonCr.C.T. C. Chesnut R., Near Boye- man, Montana 7. Marshall Mine, Boulder City C.T., average of 5. 8. Van Dyke, W. T European Lignites. 9. Zsemle. Iluntrarv 10. Wildsthut, Upper Austria 11. Dax, France Regnault. 12. Utweiller, Rhine (I 13 Minprve Tj'AuHr II Bituminous Coals. 14. Nottinghamshire (coking). 15. St. Helen's Lancashire. (non-coking). 16 Sidney C B.. 3.50 3.23 W.R.John8on. 17. Pictoii, N S 1.75 No. 1, from Tables in Percy's Metallurgy, Nos. 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, from Geological Survey of Territories for 1870. No. 4, from Hague and King's Mining Industry of 40th parallel. No. 6, from Geological Survey of Terri- tories for 1872. Nos. 9, 10,11, from Percy*s Metallurgy. No8.*12and 13 quoted by Hodge in Geological Survey of Territories for 1870. Nos. 1 4 and 15, Percy's Metallurgy. No. 16, from Coal Trade of British America, W. R. Johnson. No. 17, Acadian Geology. 0. 8 from VanDyke, together with another lignite of similar composition mim 80 from the neighbouring locality of Rock Springs, are considered hy Mr. Hodge the beet lignites in the Rocky Mountain region. The ironstones of this formation, though occurring very frequently in the same sections, and in close proximity to the coals, have not been observed in any place to attain a considerable thickness. They generally run in no- dular sheets of only a few inches thick, through the cloys and argillaceous sands. Externally they weather to various shades of chocolate -brown and reddish-brown, but are hard and compact in structux'e and within preserve their original bluish or yellowish-grey colour. They ring beneath the hammer, and break off in conchoidal chips. Considerable quantities of this material might be gathered from the surface in some localities, and it is probable that further search might bring to light localities in which so many layers of ironstone occur in the same section as to render it profitable to work over the entire bank. Should these ores overcome to be worked, limestone for use as a flux could be obtained in considerable quantities from the boulders of Silurian age which strew the plains in many places. , ; ; , Clay Ironstone from Souria Valley. Section 2. i . Protoxide of iron 49.00 . '' Water lost at 115° C 1.21 Ciubonic Acid lost on ignition 28.57 Siliceous matter insol. in HCl 17.04 Sulphuric Acid 0.26 Pbosiihorus Trace Jletftllic iron per cent, in raw ore 38.11 Metallic iron in calcined ore 54.27 Clay Jronttone from 345 Mile Valley. Section 9. ' ' -, Protoxide of iron 46.72 Waterlost atll5= C 3.57 Carbonic Acid loston ignition 21.23 Siliceous matter insol. in H CI 8.72 < ■ Sulphuric acid 0.30 Phosphorus , 0.03 Metallic iron in raw ore 37.53 '. , ; f Metallic iron in calcined ore 49.90 » ,. A small quantity of iron is present as peroxide in each ore, but I have not thought it necessary to make a separate estimation of this. A third specimen from the 345 Mile Valley, section 8, examined for iron, gave a percentage in the raw ore of only 37.95. The percentage of iron in the specimens examined is very good for the class of ores to which they belong. The average percentage of iron of several good English clay-ironstones amounts to 33.84 ; of several samples odge 1 tlio rved i no- eous and srve the this it is I so iblo ;ed, rom of black-baad ironstones to 85.39. Where these ironstones are unweather- ed, the whole of the iron appears to bo in combination with carbonic acid. The quantity of sulphur present is small, and it is entirely as sulphuric acid and in combination with lime. Phosphorus is also present in very sm^'.l quantities. ^ The clays and argillaceous sands accompanying the lignites are in many places of the nature of fire clays, and contain but very small quantities of iron or lime. It is probable that many of them would make very refrac- tory fire bricks. Clay of sufficiently good quality for the manufacture of ordinary bricks and pottery is present every where in close connection with the lignites- • :i m I REFERENCE TO SECTIONS. PAOB Plate I, Section 2, Souris R *> II " 4 'I 8 " " 12, Porcupine Creek 18 " Fault, " 19 Plate II, Lignite Bed, burned at out-crop ^ " Soction 7, Short Creek I*' " " 8, Missouri Cotcau 13 " Section, Porcupine Creek 17 ilfl ^ I PAOK 6 8 18 19 .7 . lO 13 17 ! (BJi.A.Boundary Siirrej.) PlI. SOIL LOCAL OMIFT UOMITE.. 08 tY SANOY SHALE UCNUE OBEY t< YtLLOW SANOT SHAie IRONSTONE. 0*tYCLAY OgWOHAeCOUt tWALt 0»CY SANDarroNC ucMirc SANOY CLAY imMrroNc UOMfTE CAKIONAOUUl tlUU LICNITE CnVr SANSY CLAY SOIL I OUARTZITC DRin SANOY ClAY MAY & YlllOWISIf UONin nANT-BEARIHG OAY SHACQ . LIGMITE 16 n SCCTIONffi. l»nUONfTt.P0«CUPlNt CREE.K. LIONITe tANSY CLAY Lioxrrt CKEY SANOY CLAY WITH HOOTS SCCTIONa. SOURtSVAUeY .aJL^ YELLOW CflfY SANOY CLAY UCfWTC 7.5. MNDY CLAY FAULT ArrECTIMC »"LH}NrTC, SCCTH>N4-. SOUKIS VAULCY. I I 1 I 1 to rtrr G.M.DawaoiiDelt. The Dnhna Uba 1 IIMt. C IfankwL Uk . SECTIONS TERTIARY LIGNITE FORMATION. FORTY-NINTH PARALLEL. Jk t i (BJJ.A.Boundary Survey.) (B-N.A.Bovmdarv |»1 H CLINKIR snuRIS VALLEV LIONITEBtO BURNED /IT OUTCROP I^Ji^'^^-Sj i OREY CLAY SANDY CLAY ''—-I WITH IRONSTONE 9«IL SAKIO WTTH UNIOIIKE. iWElU onir CLAY r5:=- ^:Hr^^'— =r:^ 8AN0Y CLAY SMttYCLAY SANDY OAY YFIL0WI8H LIONITt MAMtANDYCLAY UONITE GREY SAND wrTH CONCRETIONS HARD GREY CLAY CLAY AITH IRONarONE. LIGNITE HARD SAND AND SANDY CLAY SOIL OUARTZIIE OfflFT YLLiaw SAn,CIXT COARSE.mOGHLr smnmoi sand. •' ' • • ■-•-'■*'■■••* ^- ^ i"^-' •- ■ •.-'-' ''■•""■■'(;' i&NITE \r SAND SECTION IN PORCUPINE GREEK 20 FEET 5*3S;?E>pc: CONCICALED . WATER or SHORT OREEK SECTION 7. SHORT CREEK SECTION 8. [LOWER PORTION] G.M.Dawson Delt, llu' Dcibano Uhn t. ItMK Conpr Ifailrnil. I,l