Harmon, writing in his journal at Chipewyan as long ago as 1808, wrote:—“About sixty miles from this, down Slave river, there are several places where almost any quantity of excellent, clean, white salt may be taken, with as much ease as sand along the sea shore. From these places, the greater part of the North West is supplied with this valuable article.”
Before the Senate committee of 1907, Mr. von Hamerstein stated that at Salt river, salt was found right on the surface. There is a spring which comes out of the ground, and the water is so salty that it cannot take up any more. Right at McMurray one hundred and fifty feet of rock salt was found. The traders and Hudson’s Bay Company’s people come down and take it with shovels, and they sell all the salt that is used along there. It is taken from Salt river. Witness did not know what they got for it.
In his report of 1888, Mr. McConnell writes:—“At La Saline, on the Athabaska, twenty-eight miles below the Forks, and about two miles above the mouth of Red Earth creek, several mineral springs occur about half a mile east of the river on the edge of the valley there, sixty feet deep. The deposits from the springs, consisting principally of calcareous tufa, cover the face of the escarpment and have also built up a cone on the top of the bank ten to fifteen feet high and about two hundred feet wide. The water is strongly saline, holding a considerable percentage of sodic-chloride. Sulphuretted hydrogen gas escapes from the bank in several places and taints the air for some distance from the springs. Besides the calcareous tufa the cone contains small deposits of common salt, gypsum and native sulphur, while pure tar, derived from the tar sands beneath, issues from the bank in two places. The springs feed a shallow lake which is situated at the foot of the escarpment, and is surrounded by a clay flat partly bare and partly covered with coarse grasses.”
Sulphur Beds and Springs.
While giving evidence before the select committee of the Senate in 1907, Mr. von Hamerstein explained that there are sulphur beds and springs between McMurray and Lake Athabaska. Extensive sulphur deposits are found on the east side of Athabaska river between McMurray and the lake. It is inland about two miles, and in some places it is found in large quantities, and beyond the lake, at several places on the east shore, as well as the west shore of Great Slave river. In some places there is a very large amount of sulphur. It comes from an old crater, in the shape of saline water, containing a large amount of sulphur. This saline water at spots runs over three or four acres, the water evaporates, and the sulphur remains.
Mr. von Hamerstein also stated that on “the lower part of the Athabaska the limestone which is exposed all along the river is of a very good quality. There is also found clay fit for puddling and for making brick.” He added that sand of the very best quality for making glass is abundant, and this industry Mr. von Hamerstein said he believed was bound to come into existence and be profitable through the existence of cheap fuel, and intense heat in the shape of natural gas in the country.
The Famous “Tar Sands.”
The occurrence of huge deposits of an oily bituminous or tarry substance along Athabaska river was referred to in the journals of the pioneer explorers of the region. In the account of his historical journal in 1879, Mackenzie mentions that the exudation of the “bituminous fountains”, as he called them, when mixed with gum or the resinous substance collected from the spruce fir, was used by the natives and voyageurs to gum their canoes. After investigating the character of these deposits, geologists have agreed in describing the black plastic mass as “Tar Sands.”
Mr. McConnell described these deposits as resting on the limestone and well exposed in high cliffs on both sides of Athabaska river. At Cascade rapid, this formation is one hundred and fifty feet thick and is so saturated that pure tar oozes out of the bank in several places and streams down the slope. Mr. McConnell proceeds in his report to say:—“The tar-sands mentioned above belong to the Dakota formation and constitute in this region the basal member of the Cretaceous system. They rest unconformably on the Devonian limestones. Lithologically they may be described as soft sandstone, the cementing material of which is a bitumen or inspissated petroleum derived from the underlying limestones. The sands are siliceous and usually rather fine-grained, but also grade occasionally into a coherent grit. The eastern boundary of the tar-sands was not precisely defined, but their outcrop was estimated to have a minimum distribution of fully one thousand square miles. In thickness they vary from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty-five feet. The tar is unequally distributed through the sands, in some places merely staining the grains, but in most of the sections examined it is present in sufficient quantity to render the whole mass more or less plastic. An analysis by Mr. Hoffmann of a specimen collected some years ago by Doctor Bell gave by weight:—
| Bitumen | 12·42 | per cent. |
| Water (mechanically mixed) | 5·85 | per cent. |
| Siliceous sands | 81·73 | per cent. |