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mens were obtained far out on the Grand Bank, and from Banquereau, north of Sable Island, Nova Scotia. The specimens were obtained principally from fishermen by Mr. W. Upham. There is little doubt that they have been detached from the rock in situ in the bottom of the sea, where they were found, and that future investigation will prove the existence of submarine Miocene or Later Tertiary rocks extending from near Cape Cod to the Grand Bank, in continuation of the broad belt of these formations which runs all along the Atlantic border from Florida to New Jersey, and which is again met with on Long Island and Cape Cod. Although the credit of making the actual discovery of these indications belongs to the above-mentioned Commission, it ought to be added that the probable existence of these rocks in the Banks had been previously foreshadowed by Professor C. H. Hitchcock, of New Hampshire.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

In reviewing briefly the progress of the Geological Survey for 1878, the researches of each officer will be noticed, according to the field of his laborsthe order being from east to west.

Nova Scotia.-In Cape Breton, Mr. Hugh Fletcher, with two assistants, worked out in detail the geology of Richmond county, the southern part of Inverness, and on the mainland, that of the north-eastern parts of Guysboro' and Antigonish counties. This work was a continuation of the survey of all the country lying to the northward of the area just completed, which had been made in the preceding years by Mr. C. Robb and Mr. Fletcher. Among the rocks of this area is a more or less altered series, consisting of red, purplish, and whitish sandstones, quartzites, argillites, and limestones, intermixed with a variety of trappean rocks or diorites in mountain masses, together with felsites and syenites, occasionally. The texture of the pure felsite ranges from compact to coarsely crystalline. Mica and quartz occur in small quantities locally in the diorites and some of the felsites, both of which sometimes contain hematite, and also copper and iron pyrites. The rocks of this series hold the remains of plants, with other fossils, similar to those found in the altered Devonian of New Brunswick, to which system they probably belong. In ascending the geological scale in this region, the metamorphism is found to cease with the Devonian system, the carboniferous in the immediate vicinity being quite unaltered. These altered Devonian rocks occupy the southern part of Richmond county and the eastern parts of Guysboro' and Antigonish, that is the region around the northern parts of Chedabucto and St. Peter's bays and the Strait of Canso.

In the southern part of Inverness county Mr. Fletcher found what he considers the Laurentian series, surrounded by the unaltered Lower Carboniferous and Millstone-grit. These Laurentian rocks extend along the whole southeast shore of Cape Breton, and include Scatari Island. Another area of the same formation occupies the northern parts of Inverness and Victoria counties, with the Sydney coal-field between the two regions. According to Mr. Fletcher, the Laurentian series of Cape Breton consists, in descending order, of crystalline limestone, dolomites and quartzites, containing tremolite, graphite, galena, magnetite, talc, mica and a little serpentine; and these rocks are inter

stratified with felsites (light-red, grey and bluish), quartzites, mica-schists, diorites, micaceous and hornblendic gneiss, felsite-breccias and compact porphyritic felsite. In the last-named rock are found copper, iron, and arsenical pyrites, molybdenite, hematite, and bismuth-glance.

The next higher formation recognized by Mr. Fletcher is the PrimordialSilurian, which occurs on the Mira River and in patches around Bras d'Or Lake. Its age is proved by the presence of fossils belonging to several different genera. Next, in ascending order, we have the Lower Carboniferous, consisting of gypsum and limestones, red and grey sandstones and shales, and grey bituminous shales. The Millstone-grit, which overlies the last-mentioned formation, is made up principally of grey and reddish-grey coarse and fine sandstones, holding plant-remains and small seams of coal. The Coal Measures constitute the highest rocks of Cape Breton. In addition to the large areas, such as that of Sydney, previously mapped out, these rocks occur in patches on the western coast of Inverness, and coal is worked at Chimney Corner, Broad Cove, Mabou, and Port Hood.

On the mainland of Nova Scotia, Mr. Scott Barlow and his assistant were employed in completing a careful survey of the southern part of Cumberland county, all along the north side of the Minas Basin.

New Brunswick.—The geologists employed in this Province during 1878 were Messrs. Ells, Mathews and Broad; also Prof. Bailey with an assistant. They were all engaged in the southern part of the Province, in continuation of the work of the preceding years. The united labors of these gentlemen have this year thrown much light upon the geology of this region, which has hitherto been rather difficult to understand. The following is a summary of the classification of the rocks of Southern New Brunswick as the result of the investigations up to the present time :

:

(1.) Laurentian. Black graphitic shales; highly crystalline tremolitic and other limestones; quartzites, mostly greenish-grey; syenites; gneisses and felsites, interstratified with each other.

(2.) Huronian. Purple and red slates and conglomerates; trap-ash conglomerates; breccias; petrosilex ; micaceous, talcoid and chloritic schists; reddish and greyish felsites; dolomites and limestones; gneisses, diorites and syenites. (3.) Cambrio-Silurian, or Lower Silurian, represented by the Primordial Zone of Barrande. Grey grits with fucoids; black fucoidal shales and grey shales and grits, followed (in descending order) by white quartzose beds, purple and grey sandstones, grits and conglomerates, which last form the base. Fossils are found in the grey beds and the black shales.

(4.) Upper Silurian. Fossiliferous slates and limestones, mostly slightly altered, but still shewing the fossils. In some parts they are much altered when they lie in contact with the Devonian granites.

(5.) Devonian. Grey and purple grits and conglomerates, with some black shales and thin bands of blue and grey limestones, and grey argillites. These are often partly altered, and the plant stems and small coal seams which they contain converted to graphite. The anthracite, which occurs in small quantities at Lepreau, belongs to this formation. Red and grey granites abound in it.

(6.) Lower Carboniferous. Gypsum; red and grey limestones, marls, sand

stones and conglomerates; grey and blue bituminous shales and "Albert " shales. The vein of Albertite, in Albert county, cuts the shales at the base of the series.

(7.) Millstone-Grit. Grey and purple sandstones and conglomerates with purple and grey shales, and thin beds of bituminous coal, such as the seam at Grand Lake, which is worked to the extent of about 5,000 tons a-year.

(8.) Triassic. Variously colored amygdaloids, and grey sandstones and conglomerates.

Quebec.-In this Province five geologists were also employed throughout the season, namely, Messrs. Richardson, Ord, Weston, Webster and Vennor. Dr. Harrington and Mr. Willimott also made geological and mineralogical excursions in the Province. Messrs. Richardson and Ord explored in the centre of the Gaspé peninsula, and made some detailed surveys at Little Metis and other points to the southwestward. Mr. Weston collected fossils all along the south shore of the Lower St. Lawrence from Cape Rosier to Riviére du Loup. Mr. Webster and his assistant were occupied in the southern part of the Eastern Townships, in additional investigations of the Quebec group. Mr. Vennor and his assistants, Mr. Frank Adams and Mr. A. S. Cochrane, were engaged in exploring and surveying and in collecting mining statistics in the phosphate region on the north side of the Ottawa River.

Ontario. In this Province no work was done.

North-West Territories. The writer (Dr. Bell) was occupied during the summer in exploring and surveying parts of the great region lying between Manitoba and Hudson's Bay in the neighborhood of York Factory. The boat-route from the interior to York does not now follow the Nelson River, as is popularly supposed, but a series of lakes and rivers lying to the southward of it. This route leaves the Nelson River about fifty miles below Lake Winnipeg by a small branch called the Ech-i-ma-mish, and passes through Oxford and Knee Lakes, Jack River, Hill River and Steel River; the last named, after joining the Fox River, forms Hayes' River, at the mouth of which York Factory is situated. A survey with soundings, &c, was next made of the Nelson River, from its mouth for a distance of nearly a hundred miles up. After returning to Norway House, the same river was surveyed, also with soundings, nearly to the point which had been reached from the sea. Numerous photographs were taken by the writer to illustrate the geology and the general character of the country both along the Nelson River and the boat-route to York Factory. Finally, surveys were made of Little and Great Play-green Lakes and of the eastern and part of the western shores of Lake Winnipeg, which will greatly improve the existing maps of these large bodies of water.

British Columbia. In this province, Dr. Dawson was employed on the Queen Charlotte Islands. He made a time-survey of the eastern side of the group, and collected a large amount of interesting information in regard to the Haida Indians, who inhabit these islands. He also obtained numerous photographs of their dwellings and of the curious carved wooden monuments, or poles and pillars, which they erect in their villages. His report on the islands will be looked for with interest. The Queen Charlotte Islands have long been known to contain economic minerals, of which coal and iron ore

are the principal. In 1872, Mr. James Richardson, of the Geological Survey, visited the group, and his report of that year contains much valuable information, especially in regard to the deposit of anthracite belonging to the Queen Charlotte Coal Mining Company at Cowgitz, of which he made a careful examination.

The director of the survey, Mr. Selwyn, was occupied during the year principally in connection with the Paris exhibition, at which the display of the economic minerals of the Dominion made by the Geological corps could not fail to impress on the visitors the extent and richness of the mines of Canada. Dr. Harrington and his assistant, Mr. Hoffmann, have continued the work of analysing and assaying in the laboratory. Mr. Whiteaves has been engaged in studying the fossils which had been collected on the Pacific coast, and he has now in type and ready to be issued a report on the Mesozoic Fossils of Vancouver and adjacent Islands, Vol. I, Part II, illustrated with ten plates by Mr. Foord, artist to the survey.

BUSINESS RETROSPECT FOR 1878.

The business retrospect for 1878 in Canada is not a cheerful one. Depression long continued began to tell in quarters where it had until then been courageously resisted; and many commercial houses that had borne bravely up under two or three years of "hard times" succumbed when the period of trial extended into the fourth or fifth year for them. The number of failures and amount of liabilities were not greater than for either of the two years preceding, but the business community appeared to take their troubles more to heart than before. Messrs. Dun, Wiman & Co. give the following statistics of failures during six years :—

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American authorities count 1878 as having been the fifth year of the great depression; the above table makes it the fourth for Canada, taking actual failures as the test. In the United States, signs of trouble being near at hand were noted by close observers early in 1873; but it was not until the 18th of September in the same year that the crash came. On that day happened the closing of Jay Cooke's banking house, an event which spread panic far and wide, and at once precipitated a general crisis. Railway interests were the first to suffer, but soon nearly all others became involved in the calamity. That Canada should escape altogether the effects of so vast a disturbance near at hand was not to have been expected, but we may say that almost a year had elapsed ere general suffering was visible in the Dominion. Our participation in the calamity was somewhat delayed, but the full weight of it came upon us at last. During 1875 people appeared to take the depression as a matter of course—as something which, if it could not immediately be cured, must be endured for a while-but from the beginning of 1876 onward, the anxiety to get sight of a turn for the better kept increasing. It is necessary to take this glance backwards, if we would rightly understand the feeling which prevailed in commercial circles during 1878. The year carried not merely its own proper responsibilities, but also an accumulated burden of hope deferred, making the situation intolerable for many who had weathered

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