Doctor Dawson, reporting upon the result of these operations, stated:—“The bore furnishes additional evidence of the existence in the Northwest territories of a vast gas-field. The seemingly uniform continuity of the Cretaceous beds, makes it almost certain that gas-wells may be obtained by boring, over a great area. Unfortunately the Pelican boring, like the boring at Athabaska, did not penetrate deep enough to furnish reliable information as to the existence or non-existence of petroleum of a high quality. The presence of low-quality petroleum—maltha—is demonstrated, but as the more liquid oil may very probably underlie this, and as we did not reach a sufficient depth to determine the point, the result is unsatisfactory.” WHY THE BORING WAS STOPPED. The following extracts from the report of the engineer in charge of the boring operations at Pelican river, Mr. A. W. Fraser, are interesting, and show how and why the operations came to an abrupt termination:—“I used some of the heavy petroleum or maltha which flowed from the well in raising steam, and it made an extremely good fuel. “If the hard slate stratum at eight hundred and twenty-one feet six inches had been pierced, a great flow of petroleum might have, in my opinion, been encountered. Indeed it is altogether possible that at that depth we were within a few feet of a large body of petroleum. Had it been struck while the flow of gas was in an unconquered condition, the result would have been disastrous, as there might have been no possible means of checking the flow. The flow of gas was so great that a cannon ball could not have been dropped down the pipe. “At seven hundred and seventy three feet a heavier flow of gas was struck. It made a roaring noise coming out of the bore, and had quite a pronounced petroleum odour. Increased quantities of petroleum in the cuttings at these depths were encountered. “At eight hundred and twenty feet a tremendous flow of gas was struck, which blew every drop of water out of the bore. The roar of the gas could be heard for three miles or more. Soon it had completely dried the hole, and was blowing a cloud of dust fifty feet into the air. Small nodules of iron-pyrites, about the size of a walnut, were blown out of the hole with incredible velocity. They came out like bullets from a rifle. We could not see them going, but could hear them crack against the top of the derrick. It was impossible to do anything with the bore that day, so we were forced to let it stand just as it was. There was danger that the men would be killed if struck by these missiles. The next day a long stick was put on the tools, so that the men could turn them without getting too close to the bore. In this way we succeeded in penetrating through eighteen inches of a conglomerate mass of these iron-pyrites nodules embedded in heavy petroleum. As we drilled through this the gas blew out the nodules of iron-pyrites embedded in oil.