per ton. It was principally used for admixture with ordinary bituminous coals in the preparation of illuminating gas. For this purpose it was admirably adapted, yielding per ton 100 gallons of crude oil or 14,500 cubic feet of gas of superior illuminating power. When employed with coal it left as a residuum a valuable coke.-Lower Carboniferous. Bituminous Shale. Collingwood, O., lot 23, range 3.. Geological Survey. 585. The shale of Collingwood, on lot 23, range 3, yields when distilled, from three to four per cent. of tarry oil, which, by the usual process of rectification, affords illuminating and lubricating oils. Works containing twenty-four retorts, and capable of producing about 250 gallons of oil daily, by the distillation of from twenty to thirty tons of shale, were erected by Messrs. Pollard and Macdonell, in October 1859. The available bed of shale is seven feet thick, and the material was delivered, broken for the retorts, at twenty cents per ton. The cost of the crude oil was said to be fourteen cents a gallon, and for a while the business was carried on successfully, a ready market being found for the oils produced; but the works were repeatedly destroyed by fire, and the petroleum from the oil wells of Enniskillen, coming into competition with the oil produced, the enterprise was finally abandoned.- Utica Shales, Cambro-Silurian. Petroleum. Petrolia, O... Isaac Waterman, London, O. Crude Petroleum and products manufactured from it by Isaac Waterman. m. Amber tiger oil (a compound oil, the principal constituent being oleine oil). 470 o. Locomotive cylinder oil (used instead of tallow). p. Black lubricating oil for summer use. 7. Bloomless oil (used for adulterating seal and lard oils). a2. Rope oil (used largely in the manufacture of ropes). 62. Petroleum tar (refuse of crude oil which is distilled to get oleine oil, paraffin wax, greases, &c.) c2. Sawmill oil. d2. Wool oil (used for washing the wool before spinning). e2. Fuel oil. f2. Unpressed paraffin oil (contains the wax in the raw state). t2. 50 boxes of paraffin candles of various shapes, sizes and colours. v2. 1 small lion and 2 ornamental pieces made from paraffin wax. w2. Wooden models of derrick and engine house used in Petrolia, also a piece of a drilling pole such as used in drilling oil wells. x2. 60 bottles filled with samples of all the oils manufactured from the petroleum. The only productive oil region in Canada is that in the township of Enniskillen, in the county of Lambton, Ontario. Surface oil and "gum-beds" were known to exist in the southern part of the township of Enniskillen from the time of the first settlement of Western Ontario. In 1860, Mr. Williams of Hamilton, Ontario, first obtained petroleum by boring in the underlying rock at this locality, which was then named Oil Springs. It was soon discovered, however, that the best "oil territory" was situated a few miles further north in the same township, in the vicinity of the present town of Petrolia. All the sur. rounding country is very level, with a clay surface. The petroleum-bearing region is overlaid by continuous beds of sand and clay, from 40 to 100 feet in thickness. In some places these deposits rest immediately upon the limestones of the Corniferous formation, but more frequently these latter are found to be capped by rocks of the Hamilton formation, both of which belong to the Devonian system. The true source of the petroleum seems to be in the Corniferous rocks. The wells of the Enniskillen region lie along the axis of an anticlinal dome, which brings to the surface the shales of the Hamilton formation. The petroleum is as a rule denser than that of Pennsylvania, and richer in paraffin; but there is frequently a notable difference in the density, colour and odour of petroleum derived from a single locality, that from the shallower wells being of a darker colour and thicker. The disagreeable odour of the crude material is largely removed in the process of refining, which is carried on chiefly at London, St. Thomas, and Petrolia. The town of Petrolia, having a population of 6,000, is the principal centre of the oil trade. The production for the last four years has been about 6,000,000 barrels of crude oil per year, and about 6,000 people find employment in the oil business, some of them working at the wells and others in the refineries, cooper shops, machine shops, &c. About $2,500,000 are invested in the wells, and an equal amount in shops and such machinery as is necessary for converting the crude oil into the merchantable products. The largest well in the Canadian region at present produces 25 barrels per day, but the majority of the wells only produce one barrel daily. These small wells are generally pumped in groups of from 6 to 15, one engine being sufficient for all. The average depth of the wells in Petrolia is 490 feet, while the average distance of bed rock from the surface is 100 feet, the superficial deposits consisting of blue clay. There are at present over 2700 wells in existence, nearly all of them pumping oil. New wells are being continually sunk, the average diameter of bore being five inches. Although the wells do not produce such large quantities as some twenty years ago, the total production has materially increased, and is continually increasing, owing to the large number of new wells which are constantly being sunk. In former years, and when petroleum commanded much higher prices than at present, it was sought for and obtained in greater or less quantities, by boring near Wequamikong, on the Grand Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, at Tilsonburg and Bothwell, in the western peninsula of Ontario, and around Gaspe Bay in the province of Quebec. Traces of it have been found in various other parts of Ontario and Quebec, also in Cape Breton, and at Port-au-Port on the west coast of Newfoundland. The petroleum of Manitoulin Island comes from the Cambro-Silurian limestones of the Trenton formation; that of Gaspe, Tilsonburg, Bothwell, and as before mentioned, that of Enniskillen, as well as the great natural outflow of the Athabasca River, is derived from rocks belonging to the Devonian system. Athabasca River, N.W. Territory.. Geological Survey. The occurrence of petroleum or "bitumen on the Athabasca was recorded by Sir Alexander Mackenzie in 1789, and again by Sir John Henderson in 1851. The first-named author states, on page 87 of his narrative, alluding to the Forks of Athabasca, that "At about twenty-four miles from the Forks are some bituminous fountains into which a pole 20 feet long can be inserted without the least resistance. The bitumen is in a fluid state; heated it remits a smell like that of sea coal." And Sir John Richardson says, "The whole country for many miles is so full of bitumen, that it flows readily into a pit dug a few feet below the surface." The deposits occurring along the Athabasca have since been visited by officers of the Geological Survey, and the maltha or mineral pitch has been examined in the Survey laboratory. It appears that, while the pitch is derived from the underlying Devonian rocks, the lower sandy beds of the Cretaceous system have become saturated with this substance, which is now found exuding from them for a great distance along the Athabasca and Peace Rivers.-Report of Progress of the Geological Survey, 1882-84. (No specimens exhibited.) Peat. St. Hubert, Q... Canada Peat Fuel Company, Montreal, Q. Peat occurs in great abundance in many places in the Dominion, but has never been much worked, except in a few localities south of the River St. Lawrence, and not far from Montreal. The bogs which were worked for some years by the Canada Peat Fuel Company are situated at St. Hubert in Chambly county, about ten miles from Montreal, and at Ste. Brigide, about ten miles from the town of St. Johns, on the Richelieu River. The peat was extracted and prepared by Hodge's machines, of which, in 1875, there were two in use at St. Hubert and one at Ste. Brigide. The two at St. Hubert produced 8,000 tons of peat during the season, and that at Ste. Brigide 5,000 tons, or 13,000 tons in all. A small proportion of this was sold for domestic purposes, chiefly in Montreal, the balance being employed by the Grand Trunk Railway Company in their locomotives. The manufacture has been suspended, but efforts are now being again made to utilize the deposits in this vicinity. (No specimens exhibited.) Ste. Thérèse, Q., 586. Peat. .Mr. D. Morris, Ste. Thérèse de Blainville, Q. |