The God Erich Salt Region.

was explored in 1876 more fully than before, by boring with a diamond drill, by Henry Attrill, New York. The boring was carried to a depth of 1,517 feet. The salt bearing strata were found to be nearly horizontal. Examination of the sec ions was made by Prof. T. S. Hunt, and six beds of rock salt were found in the depth bored, from 6 to 31 feet thick. The total thickness of the layers of salt is 126 feet, without counting the thin layers and veins in the intervening rocks. The second and third beds are only 7 feet apart, are remarkably pure, and may be regarded as one great workable mass of rock salt. The analysis only showed foreign matter one portion of it of less than one-fourth of one per cent. A layer of rock-salt one foot thick, is estimated to yield for each acre 2,873 tons of 2,000 lbs. In place of the comparatively costly process of the manufacture from brines, a deposit is here offered almost inexhaustible in extent, and much of it of exceptional purity. No rock salt has as yet been discovered in the saline formation in New York, but on Saginaw Bay in Michigan it has been found at the depth of 2,085 feet.

Mr. Vennor spent the season of 1876 in the counties of Pontiac and Ottawa, Que., in 1875 in Renfrew Co. in Ontario. The crystalline limestones of that country were found to go up the Ottawa from Arnprior to Fitzroy Harbour and then across that river to Bristol A synclinal of the limestones extends westward up the Madawaska The trough or depression is found to be continuous from Madoc to Arnprior, and joins the Hastings series Another great basin or synclinal of crystalline limestone runs inland from the Ottawa valley in Horton along the Bonnechere Kiver for 52 miles. The thickness of the limestone was found the same as in Lanark Co., from 8 to 6,000 feet. But three great divisions or groups of rocks are found to exist in Eastern Ontario: 1. A great gneissic and syenitic series without limestones 2. A thinner gneis- page 27 sic series, with labradorites and limestones. 3. Lower Silnrian, Potsdam to Trenton. On the opposite side of the Ottawa, in Quebec, the rocks were found to be of precisely the same general character. It is probable another limestone trough exists up the Ottawa valley as far as the Upper Allumette Lake. The great Ramsay, Lanark and Dalhousie band crossing at Bristol, and along that township and Clarendon, runs inland northward for more than 100 miles, and after a number of zig-zags, again approaches the Ottawa and joins the Petite Nation and Grenville series Iron ore was found from Hull to Post Creek, in Cameron township, between the Gatineau and Thirty-one-mile Lake, 54 miles in a direct line north from the Ottawa River Apatite is found in the townships of Buckingham and Templeton in a belt of rocks averaging 1¾ miles in width, running N.E. from near the centre of Templeton. The belt is very productive and the apatite of very tine quality. It has also been found in Hull and Wakefield, and probably exists some distance north along the Gatineau, S E. of the apatite belt. The plumbago-bearing rocks occupy a very large area in Buckingham and Lochaber

Mr. G F. Mathew was engaged in 1875 and 1876 in Charlotte Co., New Brunswick. In 1875 the summer was spent in the examination of the "dark argillites," or Upper Silurian slates of the north-west part of the county, and that of 1876, in the south-east part of the same county, in order to ascertain the age of some groups of strata in that quarter, described as "Coastal" and "Kingston" series. The former are described to be probably Laurentian. Between Lepreau Basin and Dipper Harbour there is an abundance of dark grey and pale grey limestone, apparently inexhaustible in quantity, with two good harbours close at hand and a heavy growth of wood on the ridge. The "Kingston series" has the same characteristics as the "Upper Silurian" of the north-west part of the county. Two important metalliferous zones occur in the "Kingston," containing copper, lead, bismuth and iron. In the vicinity of Lepreau Basin, a shaft 90 feet deep had been sunk to test the beds of anthracite coal found there. The mineral is agranular anthracite. Slaty layers are irregularly distributed through the upper part of the seam, but improve in quality on the south side, and at the bottom four feet of pure coal had been penetrated without reaching the foot wall of the seam. At St. George three companies have been formed for the purpose of working the beautiful dark red granite quarries The rock is red, of various degrees of intensity, with occasional large patches 20 to 49 feet across, of indefinite length, of pale cream colour and grey. Blocks 20 or 30 feet long are taken out by blast, and can be readily split The whole surface is capable of very high polish

Professor Bailey and Mr. Ells made an examination of portions of Albert and Westmoreland counties, New Brunswick, in order to obtain a more accurate knowledge of the belt of the lower carboniferous rocks traversing those counties, and especially of the belt of "Albert Shale," holding the deposit of Albertite. This Lower Carboniferous belt lies along the northern flank and eastern end of a chain of high lands, which extends from St. John eastwardly to a little beyond the centre of Albert County. The "Albert Shales," the most important member of this series, traverses the County of Albert in two distinct and well defined bands. The shales are, In general, thinly bedded, splitting easily into thin and flexible sheets, alternating with thicker and harder beds, very tough, and breaking only with a conchoidal fracture. All are highly bituminous, with frequent occurrences of streaks and layers of oily matter and from the more sandy beds fluid petroleum may be seen to flow. In certain bands of the shale, vast numbers of fossil fishes occur. These bituminous shales occupy an area of about 250 acres The "Albert" mine is now being worked at a depth of 1,260 feet, and a trial hole shows its continuance 100 feet further. The albertite is not a true coal, but an oxidised hydrocarbon, at one time existing, like petroleum, in a condition of fluidity. Besides the veins of "Albertite," the Albert shales also contain themselves a sufficient quantity of bituminous matter to make them available sources of supply both of on and gas. It is also probable they may be available for the manufacture of paving mater all or cements. The plaster beds found in this Lower Carboniferous series, are the most extensive and valuable in New Brunswick Much of the rocks a pure white snowy alabaster, easily cut or ground, other portions pale cream colour, light grey, light blue, and translucent. The analysis of the albertite shows that out contains 86 parts of carbon.

Mr. Fletcher was engaged during the summer of 1876, in the counties of Victoria, Cape Breton, and Richmond, Nova Scotia, being that part of the island of Capo Breton lying between Loch Lomond, Salmon and Mira Rivers on the east, and the Groat Bras D'Or and St Patrick Channel on the west. The Bras d'Or Lakes occupy deep basins, excavated in soft, carboniferous strata, encompassed by hills of lignite and other pre-silurian rocks They are connected with each other by Barra Strait, with the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the Great and Little Bras d Or, and with the Atlantic Ocean by the St Peter's Canal Plaster, iron, and building stone are found on their shores, and their scenery is of surpassing beauty. Fish of all sorts abound in the bays and streams, and ducks, loons, cranes, sea pigeons, plover, partridges, fox, rabbit, mink and wild cat offer attractions to the sportsman. At East Bay there is a mineral spring similar to that of St. Catharines. Ont Feldspathic and gneissoid rocks form the surface over a large area, constituting hill ranges, seldom exceeding 600 feet in height The prevailing scarcity of superficial deposits, other than those produced from the disintegration of the underlying rocks, is worthy of notice. The banks are sometimes composed of stratified sand, clay and gravel, the gravel at the bottom, and at some places black magnetic iron sand is strewn along the beach. Sometimes the shores are low with ponds nearly dry and capable of being reclaimed as excellent hay land. Interval lands of great fertility are found in the page 28 valleys of the larger brooks, but the country is generally sterile. The best farms have a rich marl or calcareous lower carboniferous bottom. Hematite and calcspar are of universal occurrence, the former very pure. Clay, iron, stone, bog iron ore, pyrolusite, copper ore, galena containing gold and silver, molybdenite and gold have been discovered. Coal has been found in three ocalities in the sandstone, and in two in the carboniferous conglomerate, and gypsum, marbles, syenite, porphyry and granite, fireclay and sandstone can all be obtained on the shores of these lakes.

The results of assays of a number of minerals by Mr. Harrington are given. Those of coal and lignite were from B Columbia, the coal from the Nicola River giving less than three per cent, of ash and yielding a bright and tolerably firm coke, from the North Thompson, 13 of ash, a bright firm coke and nearly approaching a true bituminous coal; from the Upper Nechacco, lignite giving 4.89 of ash, and the volatile and fixed combustible matter nearly equal; Baynes Sound, Vancouver's Island, a fierce bright coal; Little Lepreau, N.B, an impure anthracite coal, giving 37 parts of ash and 57 fixed carbon; fort Hood, N. S, a bright coal, but with so much sulphur as greatly to detract from its value; and from McAdam Lake, N.S., a coaly shale having 53 per cent, of ash, but yet coking. The average percentage of ash in 16 samples of Vancouver Island coal was 9.58, and of fixed carbon 59.37. The coal east of the 112th meridian is of inferior quality to that west, the average of fixed carbon for them being only 39.89.

Iron Ores.—The hematite from Cape Breton yielded 59½ parts of metallic iron, that from Flamborough, Ont., 28½. The titaniferous iron ore from shawenagan, Q., gave 34.64 of iron; and from Ste. Julienne, 38 27. The magnetic iron ore from Texada Island, B.C, gave 68.40 of metallic iron, and spathic iron ore from Cape Breton 32.58.

A specimen of Manganese from Cleveland, Quebec, gave only 15 15 per cent, of peroxide of manganese. Copper from Poison's Lake, N.S., yielded 1170 copper, and 35.57 metallic iron.

Of 12 specimens of quartz from British Columbia the best gave 0.385 oz. gold to the ton, and 1.312 silver. From the Eureka Mine at Fort Hope, a specimen gave 221 66 oz. to the ton. A specimen from Batehewana Bay, Lake Superior, gave 15.67 oz. to the ton of silver, and one from Jackfield Bay 0.198 gold and 5.40 silver. One specimen from the Victoria Mine gave 168.477 oz. of silver to the ton, but this was a very much larger yield than obtained from any other specimens from that mine. Two specimens from Hatly and Sherbrooke. Q., gave 219 oz. and 10.28 oz. silver to the ton.

A specimen from the calcareous band reached in the boring on swan River, near Fort Pelly, was found to contain no less than 90½ per cent, of carbonate of lime.

A comparison of Canadian graphite with that of Ceylon, having been instituted by Mr. Christian Hoffman, it was found that in respect to incombustibility the Canadian graphite is fully equal to that of Ceylon, and is therefore equally suited for the manufacture of crucibles.