In his Summary Report of the operations of the Geological Survey, for the year 1894, Doctor G. M. Dawson, the director, referring to Mr. McConnell’s explorations and report, wrote:—“The occurrence of great quantities of bitumen or maltha along a portion of Athabaska river has long been known, having been noticed and commented upon by the very earliest travellers in the region. Beds of sand or very soft sandstone of Cretaceous age, varying from one hundred and forty to two hundred and twenty-five feet in thickness, are there found to be more or less completely saturated with bitumen, for a distance of some ninety miles along the river. These beds are known as ‘tar sands.’ More recently a number of smaller occurrences of bitumen in the form of ‘tar springs’ as well as sources of combustible gas, have been found at different places over a very extensive district. All these circumstances point to the probable existence of a great petroleum field, of which possibly some parts have already exhausted themselves in saturating the lowest Cretaceous sands, but of which probably the greater portion is still effectually sealed by the thick covering of overlying rocks. It is believed that the source of the petroleum which has given rise to the deposits of bitumen is in the Devonian strata, which here immediately underlie those of Cretaceous age.” EXPERIMENTAL BORINGS. In 1893, at the suggestion of Mr. McConnell and Doctor Dawson, the Dominion government began experimental borings for petroleum in the Athabaska region. The importance of actually ascertaining by means of boring operations, the existence or otherwise of economically valuable bodies of petroleum in the region had been recognized for many years, but the remoteness of the region and the apparent impossibility of immediately utilizing any discoveries which might be made, had hitherto prevented the necessary experiments. A vote of seven thousand dollars was obtained from Parliament for the purpose of initiating this work, the arrangements for which were entrusted to the Geological Survey. After careful consideration, it was determined that a bore-hole should in the first instance be sunk at Athabaska, at which place the depth of strata to be passed through in order to reach the horizon of the “tar sands” had been estimated by Mr. McConnell at approximately from twelve to fifteen hundred feet.