Mr. Wm. Beech of Churchill, in a communication to the press in 1911, stated that he had noticed that the Eskimos who visit Churchill yearly have nearly all their tools, such as snow-knives, ice-chisels, and fish-hooks, made out of native copper. They use copper tops over their pipes while smoking, and any break in their guns is usually mended by a strip of native copper.
So much for the deposits of native copper along the northern sea coast of the Barren Lands and on the islands off the coast, which were the means of originally attracting attention to the mineral wealth of this vast region.
Unquestionably the most comprehensive review of the geological features of the Barren Lands with respect to the prospective development of the country’s mineral resources was that made by Mr. J. Burr Tyrrell in his paper read before the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Toronto in 1897 on the resources of the Barren Lands. The review in question was so thorough that no excuse is needed for quoting it here at length. Mr. Tyrrell wrote:—“It is to the minerals of this region that we must look for any large contributions to the national wealth, and failing these it is difficult to see how the country can be any thing but a serious burden on those Canadians who live in the midst of more congenial surroundings. What are the prospects of finding minerals of sufficient value to induce people to open easy means of communication with that northern country, and to settle in it? Let us examine this question ground for hope in the future of
A Sub-Arctic Mining Province.
“The western arm of the Archaean horseshoe, around which the remainder of the American continent has been built up during successive geological ages, strikes the west coast of Hudson bay near Churchill, and thence extends northward, with an average breadth of from five hundred to six hundred miles to Arctic ocean. This Archaean belt is composed chiefly of Laurentian and Huronian rocks, but in the depressions are some large areas of rocks of a later age.
“As the only exact geological information at present available is that collected by the two expeditions sent out by the Canadian Geological Survey in 1893 and 1894 which I had the honour to lead, I shall describe the rocks as seen on those two expeditions and afterwards attempt to bring together such other information as has been recorded by others, and assign to it such value as it would seem to possess.
“The Laurentian system, as here seen, consists almost exclusively of crystalline, massive, or altered crushed and contorted rocks of the ‘Basement Complex’, consisting of granites and diorites, and granite and diorite gneisses. As a rule, the massive and foliated rocks are very similar in composition being probably different phases of the same fluid or semi-fluid magma. These rocks are so similar to the Laurentian rocks of the northern Ontario, which are familiar to any one who has spent a summer in Muskoka or in Thousand islands, that it is unnecessary to describe them in greater detail here. They are not usually rich in valuable minerals except where they come in contact with the overlying Huronian rocks.
“On Dubawnt river they underlie the country northward from Daly lake, and thence continue northeastward along the west shore of Dubawnt lake and down Dubawnt river to Lady Marjorie lake, over which distance they were often seen in contact with overlying Huronian and Cambrian strata. North of Lady Marjorie lake they disappear under the Cambrian sandstones, and they were not again seen until the Cambrian belt was crossed and the north shore of Schultz lake was reached.
“On Kazan river they extend from Ennadai lake to beyond Yathkyed lake, with the exception of a small Huronian area near Angikuni lake.
“On the low flat shore of Hudson bay, between Seal river and Cape Eskimo, the few rock exposures seen were of granite and gneiss of typical Laurentian aspect. For forty miles north of Cape Eskimo no rock in place was seen, and thence northward to Baird bay some of the points were seen to consist of granite and gneiss, though the shore generally was underlain by Huronian rocks.