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* Dawson gives the following section ‘at Athabaska, obtained from a natural exposure and from the bore-hole, the zero datum being the top of the bore-hole or about 1,660 feet above sea-level.

Height Thickness of Formation

Feet Feet Top of bank. 1810—Yellowish sandstones, thin beds, with some ironstone: Foxhill or Laramie... .. 15 165—Probably all grey shales, with some thin " sandstone layers ; not well exposed. Depth 0—Top of bore-hole. 1,090—Grey and blackish shales, often very soft, with occa- sional thin, hard layers of sandstone or iron- stone. Much gas at different levels between 245

and 780 feet: La Biche shales... .. Kaa elena 1,130—Grey sandstone, with a flow of soft water: Pelican

sandstone... .. . Re er et ga eS b 40 1,238—Dark shales, often soft, a " little “gandstone : Pelican

Shales. 3-2 -.. 103

1,461—Grey sandstones and ‘grey, reddish, ‘and plackish ‘shales : the sandstone sometimes very hard and probably nodular, as in outcrop at Grand a Grand Rapids sandstone... .. 228 1,770—Dark and light-grey shales, ‘generally hard, with some sandstone layers, particularly towards the base:

CLCGTIWUCERTSR GILES 85 set a PR ge I Se ee 309 (or more) MROUAL vee cite ig te ee the a ee ee 1,95'0

Near Pelican river the boring was carried to a depth of 821 feet 6 inches in 1897 and: continued to a depth of 837 feet in 1898. The bituminous sands were met at a depth of 750 feet and were penetrated 87 feet. They were found to consist of soft sandstone saturated with bitumen. Strong flows of gas were struck at 750 and 773 feet, and at 820 feet a tremendous flow was struck, the roaring of which could be heard ‘at a distance of 3 miles or more. The flow was so strong that no progress could be made in drilling, and work was aban- doned until 1898, when it was thought the force of the gas would be decreased sufficiently to permit of further operations.

"But though there was a seeming decrease of pressure, upon operations being resumed in 1898, “the seeming decrease was found to be in a great measure due to the closing up of the outlet at the bottom of the casing by an asphalt-like mixture, composed of maltha or petroleum tar and sand. In fact, when boring operations were resumed on June 17, the difficulty was found to be intensified by the accumulations of this asphalt-like maltha in the bottom of the bore.

“The rapid expansion of the gas produced a very low temperature, and this chilled and solidified the tar, or maltha, until it became as adhesive as wax. As the tools cut it loose the gas would carry it up through the bore, until from bottom to top it was almost one mass of sand and tar. The only way it could be extracted from the sand-pump was by heating the latter over a fire; even then very little could be got out at one time, it being so thick that it was almost impossible to force it up into the pump. I used different sorts of tools to cut it off the walls and clean it out, but the longer we worked

1 Geol. Surv., Can., vol. XII, p. 14 A. 2 Geol. Surv., Can., vol. XI, p. 32 A.