THE KEEWATIN AREA.
(Newest Ontario and Northern Manitoba.)
Economic Minerals.
The Rocks in Many Cases Highly Magnetic.—Norite Rock Similar to That at Sudbury About Trout Lake.—Peat in the District North of Lake Winnipeg.—A Large District Underlain By Keewatin and Huronian Rocks Which “Has Large Possibilities.”—Gypsum.—Building Granites.—Quartz Veins on Grassy River Below Reed Lake.—A Possibility of Nickel Occurring.
The evidence contained in the report of the British parliamentary investigation of 1749 shows that from the establishment of the first trading posts along the shores of Hudson bay, the attention of the officials and servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company was attracted by the statements of the natives as to the existence in the country of deposits of economic minerals. The earliest authorities of the trading company appear, however, not only to have abstained from investigating the mineral resources of the region, but to have discouraged their employees from prospecting, desiring them to concentrate all their efforts upon the fur trade. Many of the witnesses before the committee repeated in their evidence statements obtained from the Indians as to the existence of deposits of lead, and particularly of copper, in the north, doubtless referring to the then unknown Coppermine district.
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.
Mr. A. P. Low, in his report of his examination of the country between Lake Winnipeg and Hudson bay, says “The rocks in several places
Are Highly Magnetic,
and probably contain large quantities of iron ore, both disseminated in small crystals through the rock, and in large masses.” When being examined before the Senate committee in 1907, Mr. Low, then Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, drew attention to the fact that the map of Keewatin showed a large number of lakes, like Gas lake, Island lake, Favourable lake, Severn lake, Trout lake, etc., and remarked that wherever these patches of water are seen it indicates softer rocks than the other parts. These rocks are usually Huronian, and in many places they carry good indications of minerals, copper pyrites and different sulphides of that kind. At Trout lake there is a large area of what is called norite rock. These are the rocks in which the nickel deposits of Sudbury occur, and there is great probability of a small deposit being found up there.
There have been no indications of coal discovered in Keewatin, but Mr. Low explained that on hurried trips such as he had made it was impossible to examine mineral deposits very much, and one is liable to lose many of them. The general character of the southern part of Keewatin as regards mineral resources is good.
In the bank of Nelson river, opposite the mouth of Pine creek, Mr. J. B. Tyrrell reports a dark grey, rather fine-grained diorite or uralitic diabase, probably forming part of a large dyke cutting the gneiss. “Near the north end of Little Playgreen lake is a light reddish-grey massive biotite-granite cut by veins, a foot or more in width, of red pegmatite containing crystalline masses of molybdenite, with occasional crystals of pyrite and magnetite.”
Mr. Tyrrell reports copper and arsenical pyrites in a diabase dyke exposed in an island in Pipestone lake two miles and a quarter from the mouth of the river.
He reports the cliffs on the lower part of Burntwood river as being “occasionally overlain by a small thickness of peat.” He reports other deposits of peat in the district north of Lake Winnipeg.
Before the Senate committee of 1907, Mr. Tyrrell explained that the primary object in all his explorations was the mineral development of the country, and any other information that he collected was incidental. He stated that there is a district from Cumberland House northeastward towards Nelson river which is underlain by what are known as
Keewatin and Huronian Rocks,
the same kind as those in which minerals are found in northern Ontario at the present time. The very existence of those rocks was barely known. There had been practically no exploration of them, no prospecting, so that no one could say as to whether they were to be a barren portion of those rocks which are rich elsewhere, or whether they were to be like the Huronian and Keewatin rocks elsewhere, rich in mineral of some of the kinds so much desired. Comparing them with the rocks in other places, they have large possibilities. From that point there is an area of sandstone in the vicinity of Cree lake which may contain copper, but nothing much was known of it. It is about the age and character of the rocks that are rich in copper around Lake Superior, but no mineral wealth has yet been found in it.
Mr. D. B. Dowling, in his report on the survey of Burntwood-Nelson-Lake Winnipeg district in 1899, predicts that the several large areas of Huronian rocks which he outlines will at some future time be thoroughly prospected, and, as has been the case in nearly all such areas, ores of the useful and precious metals are likely to be found. “As it is at present, a very hasty visit has shown that many quartz veins and intrusive dykes cut these rocks, and indications of the precious metals are not wanting. In the Pipestone area on Nelson river, mispickel and copper pyrites are recorded by Mr. Tyrrell, as well as a promising showing of mica on the south side of Indian Reserve island, on Cross lake.”
In Severn district, in the southern part of the old district of Keewatin (now part of Ontario), there is a large region lying to the southwest of Cape Henrietta Maria, that had never been geographically explored before 1901. In the year named, Mr. Dowling was entrusted to do this work, and was instructed to make an instrumental survey of Ekwan river, the largest stream in this region. A micrometer survey of the river was made to the mouth of the Washagami branch, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. The general valley was found to be a narrow cut through clay, with cut banks on either side for most of the distance to the first branch. As directed by his instructions, Mr. Dowling
Looked for Gypsum
between Moose Factory and Albany, and found some loose pieces of it in the vicinity of Nomansland.
“It is quite likely that this mineral occurs in situ in the vicinity,” Mr. Dowling states in his report.
In another part of his report Mr. Dowling states:—“Silurian limestone is found on Trout river, draining Mill lake, as well as in the bed of this lake just north of the trap rocks. The rocks at the narrows of the lake, described in the maps, as ‘high and romantic’ are cliffs one hundred and fifty feet in height of trap, capping horizontal beds of probably Animikie age. The trap overflow covers the uneven surface of these rocks, in much the same manner as Nipigon bay in Lake Superior. The underlying rocks are dark slates impregnated with iron ore, and interbanded with beds of jasper. Some of the beds seem to contain a high percentage of magnetite and hematite. On the east shore a section of about ninety feet of these jasper and iron-bearing slates is exposed above the lake, but on the west side they have been brought down to below the water level by a series of north and south faults and the exposures there are of trap alone. These rocks form an east and west ridge reaching to the lakes on the Washagami and eastward to a large lake on a branch of Trout river, which, as before stated, drains Sutton Mill lake and runs to the north.”
Mr. Dowling reported iron ore in the vicinity of Sutton Mill lake, west of James bay, and south of Hudson bay. On the east coast of James bay and Hudson bay abundant evidence of iron ore had been discovered; in fact, two large islands, Taylor and Gillis islands, are said to be almost pure iron ore.
Mr. D. B. Dowling, in his report of 1902 (Part F.F. Geol. Sur. Report) says:—“Small deposits of peat are to be found in various places, but the most important, from an economic point of view, is the area north of Lake Winnipeg described by Mr. Tyrrell. Along the valley of Burntwood river, where it is cut through the thick clay deposit, the general surface of the terrace is quite level. The drainage near the river is general, but back from the edge of the valley, on the more level parts, there is very often a wide expanse of swamp covered by a stunted growth of spruce and carpeted by heavy layers of moss. These swamps may at some future time supply peat for fuel.”
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.
An occurrence, which seemed to Mr. McInnes to be of particular interest, was his discovery on upper Winisk river of a large area of so-called norite rock. That is the rock in which the nickel of Sudbury occurs. It is quite a characteristic rock. Mr. McInnes examined samples under the microscope, and they are not to be distinguished from the Sudbury rock. That led him to hope that there was a possibility of nickel occurring there too, but he did not find any, although he examined as well as he could. But he had not much time, and was too far away. There are two or three areas of these Keewatin rocks occurring unfolded in the Laurentian, but Mr. McInnes found no minerals in economic quantities in them at all. Near Eabamet river, a tributary of the Albany, he saw crystals of mica in the granite, two and a half inches in diameter. Of course that is not large enough to amount to much, but it shows a possibility that there might be something better there.
Mr. A. W. G. Wilson says of the district north of Lac Seul explored by him (See p. [74]):—“There seems to be little prospect of finding valuable economic minerals in the region in paying quantities. In almost all the bands of basic schists small, less often large, veins of quartz occur. At the surface these veins and the associated schists present the usual rusty appearance due to the decomposition of the pyrite. The granites are occasionally cut by pegmatitic dikes. Near the head of Cross lake, a rock, apparently of this character, carries a small amount of molybdenite in crystals varying in size up to an inch and a half across; it is uncertain whether the mineral is of economic importance, but the small size and the poor character of the specimen seen, and the difficulties of transportation point to the deposit being economically unworkable. The extent of the vein is not known. Near the inlet into Slate lake, about three-quarters of a mile from its northeast end, on the eastern shore, is the only place where magnetic minerals were found sufficiently segregated to produce a noticeable local variation of the compass. Here, stringers of a metallic mineral, probably magnetite, were found. Though this metal is sometimes a constituent of the basic rocks, the more common occurrence of iron ore is in the form of ilmenite. No hematite was noted in the district.”
In his report (See p. [60]) Mr. J. R. Dickson speaks of the mineral deposits of the area explored by his party south of Cross lake as follows:—“Judging by such necessarily superficial observations as the members of the party were able to make, the region we covered is not well supplied with economic minerals.
Traces of Copper
were found at Wekusko lake, and samples of iron ore at Sipiwesk lake, and careful prospecting might perhaps disclose deposits of commercial value, but everywhere else so far as observed, the obtruding bedrock was either pure granite or limestone. The latter, however, is mostly dolomite, the variety used as a flux in the reducing of iron ores, and future ore discoveries may give rise to such demand. This dolomite also will prove a valuable building stone for prairie towns, when made available by the Hudson Bay Railway.”
According to Mr. McLaggan (See p. [58]) the section of country about Reed lake is very rocky. Dark coloured granite, streaked with white quartz, extends along the lower end of the lake and for six miles along the river. Four miles farther Mr. McLaggan found indications of iron and saw a good water power. Above Herb lake he saw another splendid water power, very easy to develop, and along the river below rapids in five places from which fair power could be generated. At the lower end of Herb lake and along the river, granite mixed with white quartz was seen, and at the falls in the river, about twenty miles below the lake, good slate was found. On this lake Mr. McLaggan noted indications of iron. In places along and back from Grass river, on either side, quartz was seen. The country has been burned over, leaving only a few bunches of spruce, and the surface of the rock has been well exposed, so that prospecting would be easy. Mr. McLaggan thinks that this part of the country may prove rich in mineral.
On September 10, Mr. McLaggan reached Paint lake. Quartz was still in sight, but not so frequent in occurrence. There are a number of islands in the lake with rocky shores and small, mixed timber. Below Elbow lake the river banks are high, the country becomes rougher, and fire has bared the rocks of soil. White quartz crops out in considerable quantities. Along the banks of Cumberland lake there are considerable quantities of limestone, which may “become very valuable in time.”
Speaking of the region explored, as a whole, Mr. McLaggan considered that as a mineral country it offers a wide field for prospectors. “In the country travelled over there are indications of gold, silver, iron and limestone, and Indians and white men from the north tell wonderful stories of a place called Indian lake, north of Nelson House, and of an island on Burntwood river where various minerals and oil are said to exist.”
In his report on the preliminary surveys for the Hudson Bay Railway, John Armstrong, C.E., states:—“Our definite knowledge of minerals is limited to limestone and marble. The limestone occurs in the southern portion of the line a short distance from The Pas, in unlimited quantities favourable for quarrying, and will probably prove the future source of supply for the greater part of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Marble of a very high grade occurs on Marble island in Hudson bay, and is also found of a fair quality at Churchill. Iron ores, gold, silver, galena, mica and other minerals have been discovered by the Geological Survey at various localities on the bay, all of which are fully described in the reports of that department. Various specimens of the precious metals have been shown to our engineers, but their origin was preserved in so much mystery that they could not be treated as evidence of the existence of the metal in that territory, and might have been used with equal effect to demonstrate the richness of a deposit in Colorado or Johannesburg.”