“South of Chesterfield inlet good harbours exist, from which the Huronian rocks could readily be explored, or, if rich mines were discovered, would serve as means of access and outlet to and from these mines.
“Churchill, at the southeastern extremity of the Barren Lands, has long been known as an excellent harbour, having been surveyed by Joseph Robson, an engineer, as long ago as 1746. On an average it is open five months of the year, from June 19, to November 18, the shortest open season known being four months and eight days, and longest season five months and eighteen days.
“It is true that in going to live in that northern land, one would leave far behind the forest, meadows, and pleasant orchards of this beautiful province (Ontario), but the wealth torn from the rocks would enable the people to procure all the products of more genial climates, and with the health and strength derived from a well-fed, but active and energetic existence, the country would be covered with homes as happy as could be found in any part of the world.”
Iron, Gold and Silver.
Mr. Tyrrell was examined before the select committee of the Senate in 1907 and in his evidence upon that occasion stated that north of Lake Athabaska, for a certain distance, there are Huronian and Keewatin rocks which certainly contain iron and small quantities of gold and silver, but larger quantities have not yet been discovered. Ore being a mass of mineral that can be worked at a profit, no ore has yet been found there, but there are precious minerals. The country north of Lake Athabaska is one of the most likely looking mineral countries that Mr. Tyrrell had ever been in. After leaving the Huronian rocks north of Lake Athabaska, one then strikes through a granite country for seven hundred miles on the routes that he travelled which does not show much evidence of minerals. Then as he got to Dubawnt lake he got on copper-bearing rocks similar to the copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior, and those are undoubtedly the same copper-bearing rocks which extend across Coppermine river, and which have there been known to produce native copper—at least the Esquimaux bring in the copper from Coppermine river to make implements.
Mr. Tyrrell said he would not expect to find silver in connection with the copper. They do not find silver in any quantity with the copper of Lake Superior. They do find silver in places, but not on the Calumet peninsula. The silver appears in a slightly different formation. While it occurs in rocks of somewhat similar age, still it is not immediately associated with copper, and the rocks that one finds from Dubawnt lake northward, covering quite a large area, are very similar to the copper-bearing rocks on Lake Superior. Taking a set of specimens from the copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior, Mr. Tyrrell declared he could duplicate them almost exactly from a set of specimens from these northern rocks in all the peculiar minerals—and there are a great many of them. He saw a small amount of copper in many places in these rocks, and we know that it occurs in the rock, because the Esquimaux pick up native copper and make their implements from it. So that he looked for a large development at some time of a copper industry in that country between Chesterfield inlet and Coppermine river. He had never been at Coppermine river himself. Really the principal exploration of Coppermine river, he explained, was done nearly one hundred years ago, and there has been very little exploration of it since. It was visited by Doctor J. M. Bell some three or four years previous to 1907, but he just barely touched it, and Sir John Richardson, in the early part of last century, really furnished all the information that is known about Coppermine river.
A Large Area of Mineral Country.
In the far northern region, Mr. Tyrrell stated upon this occasion, there is a large area of mineral bearing country. As you come out to the mouth of Chesterfield inlet there is an area of Keewatin and Huronian rocks, similar to the conglomerates of northern Ontario, which have been found to be so rich there, and these rocks are known to contain a certain amount of gold and copper. Mr. Tyrrell saw them himself there, and he had, he said, every confidence that that area too will produce minerals of value—workable ores. There was no indication of nickel in any part of the country.
Mr. A. P. Low, of the Geological Survey of Canada, who was a witness before the same committee, stated that he had spent one winter at Cape Fullerton, north of Chesterfield inlet. He explained that on the mainland where there are marked indentations, there is a large development of Huronian rocks, which contain four per cent. of copper pyrites. These rocks have not been properly prospected yet, and there have been no claims taken up on them. They have not been proven in any way. Between Chesterfield and Fullerton there are several fairly decent deposits of iron pyrites, and some of these contain small deposits of gold. Gold was found by Doctor Wright somewhere in Whitcher inlet, but beyond those discoveries nothing of a definite character is known of the minerals of the far north.
The island of Southampton east of Fullerton is formed of limestone, and a band of ancient Huronian Laurentian rocks, which crosses at the north side of it.