of the beds which were exposed. The height above the sea of the summit
of the banks it forms on the Mackenzie, was estimated to be from two
hundred and fifty to three hundred feet.

NOTICES OF OTHER LIGNITE FORMATIONS.

Similar formations of lignite occur near the foot of the Rocky Mountain
range farther to the southward; but I have not, after many inquiries,
heard of any traces of them in the eastern parts of the Hudson's Bay
lands. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, after describing the general course of
the Rocky Mountains, says that "along their eastern edge, there occurs a
narrow strip of marshy, boggy, and uneven ground, which produces coal
and bitumen;" and that "he saw these on the banks of the Mackenzie in
lat. 66 degrees, and, in his second journey, on the Peace River, in lat.
56 degrees and 146 degrees W. long.;" and further, that "the same was
observed by Mr. Fidler, on the south branch of the Saskatchewan, in lat.
52 degrees long. 112-1/2 degrees W." Mr. Alexander Stewart, an
intelligent chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and well
acquainted with those countries, informs me that there are beds of coal
on fire, on the Smoking River, or east branch of the Peace River, and on
the upper parts of the _Riviere la biche_, or Elk River; and that coal,
although not on fire, occurs at Lesser Slave Lake, on a line with the
other two localities. Mr. Small, a clerk to the Hudson's Bay Company,
likewise acquaints me, that coal occurs at Edmonton, on the north branch
of the Saskatchewan, in beds, sometimes seven or eight feet thick. Most
of the coal is thin-slaty; but some beds yield shining, thick lumps,
which break, as he expresses it, like Spanish liquorice. It lies over
beds of bluish-gray sandstone, and is associated with a white clay,
which froths in water and adheres to the fingers.

Mr. Drummond brought specimens from the spot which Mr. Small alludes to
and remarks, that the lignite occurs in beds from six inches to two feet
thick, separated by clay and sandstones. [Sidenote: 1051, 1052, 1053]
His specimens of the lignite are precisely similar to the slaty and
conchoidal varieties, which occur at the mouth of the Bear Lake River;
[Sidenote: 1055] and there is an equal resemblance betwixt the
sandstones from the two places. [Sidenote: 1053] The slaty beds of
lignite, at Edmonton, pass into a thin, slaty, friable sandstone, much
impregnated by carbonaceous matter, and containing pieces of fibrous
lignite. [Sidenote