The Unexploited West: A Compilation of all of the authentic information available at the present time as to the Natural Resources of the Unexploited Regions of Northern CanadaChambers, Ernest J.
History
The Unexploited West: A Compilation of all of the authentic information available at the present time as to the Natural Resources of the Unexploited Regions of Northern Canada
Chambers, Ernest J.
Canada -- Economic conditions; Northwest, Canadian -- Economic conditions
According to the report of Mr. Wm. McInnes, who explored in 1906 (See p.
23) the basins of Reed and Wekusko lakes and Grass river, there are
areas of intrusive granite, some of which, below Reed lake, are of even
texture and bright red colour and would furnish very beautiful stones
for monumental work and ornamental building. Palæozoic limestones cover
all the country between the Saskatchewan and an east and west line
cutting the southern ends of Reed and Wekusko lakes. The rocks are, as
far as examined, magnesian and are probably all dolomites. They occur in
flat-lying or gently undulating beds, varying in thickness from six feet
or more to quite thin and shaly, the latter occurring near the base and
the heavy beds forming the mass of the formation. Many of the heavy beds
are even-grained and uniformly bedded so that they can be readily taken
out in blocks of even thickness and of any required size. Many of the
low cliffs near the lakes are so situated as to be admirably adapted for
quarrying. Quartz veins are plentiful throughout the Keewatin belts,
but, with the exception of arsenical and iron pyrites and traces of
copper (near File lake), no valuable minerals were found in them, though
their character, particularly where exposed on Grassy river below Reed
lake, was
CONSIDERED PROMISING ENOUGH
for the occurrence of the minerals that are so often associated with
these rocks. The prevailing rocks exposed along Nelson river are biotite
gneisses. Only at two places on the shores are other rocks seen, at
Pipestone lake and on the southern shores of Cross lake, where a belt of
Keewatin rocks crosses, and for some miles follows the river valley. The
exposures at Cross lake are promising looking for the occurrence of
gold, resembling closely, as they do, the gold bearing strata of the
district east of Lake of the Woods. They are cut by intruded masses of
the same crushed granite with blue opalescent quartz, known locally in
the eastern region as _Protogene_.
Mr. William McInnes, in his evidence before the Senate committee of
1907, stated that in the region just west of Hudson bay there are only
two or three belts of what is known as the Keewatin rocks. These are the
rocks which in western Ontario hold gold. The witness found no minerals
in commercial quantities. He found traces of copper on File lake. At
Cross lake there is an area of these Keewatin rocks cut by intrusive
granite of the same character as the protogene of western Ontario, which
are almost always gold-bearing, but nothing has been found there. The
limestones would make excellent building material. There are some
intrusive granites on Grassy river which are of fine texture and
beautiful red colour, which would make very fine monumental stone
trimmings for buildings, etc., and would quarry very well. That would be
along the projected line of the railway.
NICKEL MAY BE FOUND.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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