13 Guo. 5 Prace River Drsrrice. : J9

Also the last-mentioned horizon, the Bullhead-Triassie contact, is either too near the mountains or is too deep to be reached by the drill in any part of the district which has transpor- tation facilities which are at all favourable. Consequently attention was given to the remaining horizon only in selecting an area for trial drilling.

Red River.

The area chosen for the first drilling was that shown in the report for 1920, on the Red River and its branches. Five holes were drilled at this locality, as shown in the accompanying plan. In the drill-cores the major divisions can generally be clearly distinguished—namely, St. John shales and sandstones, the conglomerate at the base of the St. John, and the underlying Bullhead sandstones and shales. There are no dominant beds within these formations that can be safely correlated with one another in different holes in greater detail. But for the purpose of the investigation these are perhaps sufficient.

In general the St. John consists of shales with less amounts of sandstone. The materiais of both rocks are not well separated. The shale is sandy in places and the sandstones are generally friable and carry a considerable proportion of clayey matter, which makes them less favourable as oil reservoirs than would at first appear.

The conglomerate is made up of well-worn, hard, dark-coloured pebbles, commonly from 1 to 14 inch in diameter, cemented together by a gray siliceous matrix. Not many of the pebbles seem to have been derived from the underlying Bullhead. The source of the matrix is even more doubtful. While it may ultimately prove to be a separate formation, for present purposes at least it may be regarded as marking the base of the St. John.

The Bullhead consists of sandstone with subordinate amounts of shale. The sandstone is harder and rather coarser than that of the St. John formation and in the upper parts might be described as gritty. At greater depth it becomes very compact and hard. The shale, too, is finely compacted. Small coal-seams occur in places and occasional plant-remains, The upper sandstones of the Bullhead for the first few hundred feet offer better reservoirs for containing oil than the sandstones of the St. John formation.

Dritrine RESULTs.

Summary. of Logs reported by Mr. Wilson.

In all holes 2-inch cores were recovered from the first 800 feet and cores of 14¢-inch diameter below that depth.

Hole No. 1 (Post 3)—

0-771 feet: Shale and sandstone of St. John formation. 771-826 feet: Conglomerate. 826-1,027 feet: Sandstone and shale, Bullhead formation.

At 191 feet saline water estimated at 300 to 400 gallons per hour appeared. It contained a little non-inflammable gas. From 798 to 950 feet fresh water and inflammable gas appeared. Total flow of water estimated at 2,000 gallons per hour. No means were available for measuring the flow of either water or gas. Gas-bubbles occupied about half the space in the pipe. Gas was piped to the camp and was used for heating and eooking from autumn until the camp was closed in the following March.

A few inches of coal were found at three places near 1,000 feet. About 913 feet a few nodules of pyrites were noted. In places the shale was found to be crushed and cleavage showing slickensided faces was developed. False bedding is a prevalent feature of all the cores. In this one the structure is practically horizontal.

Hole No. 2 (Post 1)—

Location, 60° N.E. from hole No. 1, 1,600 feet; elevation, 23 feet below No. ale 0-1,081 feet: Shale and sandstone, St. John formation.

1,081-1,141 feet: Conglomerate.

1,141-1,154 feet: Sandstone, Bullhead formation.

A smaller flow of water, estimated in all at 200 gallons an hour, accumulated from different levels down to 647 feet. Between 290 and 325 feet and at 647 feet inflammable gas appeared, also in smaller quantity than in No. 1.