The only evidence heard before the committee, unquestionably bearing upon the mineral resources of the territory immediately under review in this chapter, was given by Alexander Browne, who had been six years in the company’s service as surgeon at the bay, and who stated that he had seen large quantities of red earth, which was obtained about thirty-six miles to the southward of Churchill river; that he had tried some of it in a crucible, and found it to contain a heavy metallic substance like cinnabar, and a fluid like quicksilver. This trial was only to satisfy his curiosity, having received no orders to make it; but the GOVERNOR WAS PRESENT AT THE EXPERIMENT, and upon the witness presenting his surprise to him that the company did not endeavour to improve these discoveries, the Governor answered that he was likewise surprised that they did not. Rev. John Semmens (See p. 36), writing of his observations while on service as a missionary in the Burntwood district, says:—“It was not my business to seek for minerals, but having been a miner in earlier years, I had my eyes open, and found many indications of deposits which, in my opinion, at no distant day will contribute largely to the commercial development of the north. I shall be surprised if one of these lodes is not found at or near the southern outlet of Beaver Dam lake. And there will be many others.” Doctor Robert Bell, of the Geological Survey, describes the rocks of the eastern part of Lake St. Joseph as “corresponding with some of those of the Huronian series. On the northern side, three miles from Osnaburgh House, there is a grey mica schist.” On the Albany, two and a half miles below Shabushquaia river, “Huronian rocks make their appearance. They consist of light-greenish, rather finely crystalline hornblende schist; black, with some light-coloured schist, together with fifteen or twenty feet of fine-grained banded magnetic iron ore, with slaty partings. A specimen of this ore was analysed by Mr. Kenrick of the Geological Survey, and found to contain 42·09 per cent. of metallic iron, and to be free from titanic acid. Along with the magnetite is a band of iron pyrites, a few inches thick, with traces of copper.” A dark green hornblende schist occurs at two miles before coming to Shabushquaia river. It holds patches of calc-spar and quartz running with the cleavage. Specks of copper pyrites were found in small quartz veins in the schist at the foot of the falls at the eighth portage below Lake St. Joseph on the Albany. At the eleventh portage Doctor Bell examined a number of veins of quartz holding epidote and hornblende, but no ores could be detected. Doctor Bell, before the Senate committee of 1887, referring to his first voyage to Hudson bay, explained that lignite had been found inland in the country south and west of James bay. It belongs to a more recent geological formation than the lignite in the vicinity of Edmonton.