159

commercial value and an application of these theories to the
occurrences under consideration, with conclusions.

While material that can properly be called petroleum has
been found only in a single instance, and that in minute quan-
tities, it is thought best to retain the heading, petroleum, for the
description of the various bituminous substances, exclusive of
oil-shale, found on Graham island.

MAUDE FORMATION.!

Virtually all of the finer grained sediments of the Maude
formation contain bituminous matter, in varying amounts.
This is quite apparent in the field, where the rocks give off a
bituminous odour when struck or rubbed; and pulverized frag-
ments ignited at a low heat in a closed glass tube give a marked
foetid odour as well, even when rubbing does not produce this
effect. In almost every exposure of the formation, search will
reveal thin sheets of black, sticky, odourless, tarry matter on
bedding planes, and in many on joint surfaces. At several
localities, notably on Hidden creek, calcite veins have been
found filling irregular, usually short and branching fissures in
the banded argillites of the Maude formation. They occur in
the localized zones of crumpling already described (page 41)
where cracking in the rocks has been most pronounced. In
these veins there are many irregular open spaces. Brownish
organic matter and tar encrust the surfaces of many of these
cavities and, in places are enclosed in the calcite. Pulverized
calcite from these veins, when heated in the closed tube gives
off water coloured brown by organic matter which has an oily
smell.

Origin. It is to be recalled that the argillites of the Maude
formation are very fossiliferous—literally crowded with flat-
tened impressions of ammonites and other forms, the substance
of which has practically all disappeared. This fact, in con-
nexion with those given above, renders it unnecessary to look
elsewhere for the source of the bituminous matter. It is thought

1 Full descriptions of the lithology of the Maude, as well as of the other formations in which
bituminous matter is found, are given in chapters IV and V, and need not be repeated here.