“About three and a half miles above Fort Norman, on the east bank of the river, two extensive exposures of lignite crop out. The upper one is overlaid by about fifty feet of clay and a few feet of friable sandstone, and is about fifteen feet thick. The other seam is probably forty feet below this. When I was there it was nearly all under water. It is said to be as thick as, if not thicker than, the upper one.
On Fire For Over a Century.
“The upper seam has been on fire for over one hundred years, as it was burning when Sir Alexander Mackenzie passed in 1789. The place is locally known as le Boucan. The fire extends at present about two miles along the river, not continuously but at intervals. When I passed, it was burning in three or four places. After it has burned a certain distance into the seam the overlying mass of clay falls down and, to some extent, suppresses the fire. This clay is in time baked into a red colored rock, in which are found innumerable impressions of leaves of plants. Some specimens of these I brought home, and handed to Doctor Dawson. Traces of this red rock were noticed on the bank fourteen miles below Fort Norman, but no trace of lignite was seen near it, having probably been all burned.
“The burning seam appears to be of poor quality, containing much shale and sand, which is converted by the heat into scoriæ. It did not appear to me that it would be difficult to cut off all the burning places, and thus stop the further advance of the fire, which is destroying what yet may be of use. In order to find if the combustion could be checked I took a shovel at one place and soon had all the burning coal for a short distance cut off completely, so that the fire ceased for a time at that spot. It is a pity that at least an attempt to put out the fire is not made. Many persons in that district have an idea that it is subterraneous, and that the seat of it cannot be reached. This is a mistake, as at the point mentioned I cleaned off the fire from the face of the seam to its base and found underneath no trace of burning. The lower seam appears to be of better quality, there being no shale or sand mixed with it, so far as I could see. Heavy rain detained us here for two days, and we burned a good deal of lignite from the lower seam, as we could not reach the top of the bank to procure wood, and could find only a log or two of driftwood. The coal burned well in the open air, and threw out a much stronger heat than a wood fire. These seams are visible at frequent intervals along the bank for eight and a half miles, after which not a trace of them appears for seven miles, where there is another small exposure at the water’s edge. This seam appears, from the reports of many travellers, to extend up Great Bear river for a considerable distance. No other traces of coal were observed on the river.
“While at Fort Good Hope I noticed that many of the outbuildings and fences were painted with a dull red coloring matter, which, on inquiry, I found consisted of the ashes of wood that had lain in the river for some years. It was said poplar trees yielded the best paint and that logs that had been in the river long enough were known by the dull blue color of the wood. A sample of the ashes I brought home, and handed to Doctor Dawson. It may be that the color is due to the presence of oxide of iron; if so, this would indicate the existence in the water of iron in solution. But where the iron comes from is a mystery, as none of this peculiar wood was seen or heard of in the upper river. The inference is that the iron occurs far down in the river, but whether in the soil or in the beds on some of the tributary streams, or whether it is iron at all, has yet to be determined.
Indians Report Mica.
“The Indians report very large deposits of mica on the south side of Great Slave lake, and have brought small samples of it to Fort Resolution. While there I tried to get a specimen, but none was available. It is described as being very abundant.
“No other minerals of economic value were seen or heard of, except bitumen. On the way up (from Fort Providence to Chipewyan) the first indication of this was seen on Great Slave lake, in the form of the bituminous limestone which has already been referred to. Tar springs, as they are called in the vicinity, exist on the lake. I do not know of any of them on Slave river, but they abound on the Athabaska from near the delta for over two hundred miles up, and one is reported only a few miles from Athabaska, less than one hundred miles from Edmonton.”
Mr. von Hamerstein, in his evidence before the select committee of the Senate in 1907, stated that up the rivers that flow into the Mackenzie there are large quantities of native salt thrown up. It is mostly underground, and there seems to be a crater. The salt appears to be close to the ground in large quantities.
