Free Gold in Melville Peninsula.
Examined before the select committee of the Senate in 1887, Doctor Robt. Bell of the Geological Survey stated that free gold had at that date been found in quartz in Repulse bay, south of Melville peninsula, which is the extreme northeastern point of the continent, and considerably north of Fullerton. The free gold he spoke of as coming from Repulse bay was noticed by Professor James Tennant, of King’s College, London, England. Plenty of copper had been found up there. Witness had found it in small quantities himself, and it had been found as occurring in large quantities among specimens brought from the west coast of Hudson bay by others.
Speaking of his voyage by sea to Hudson bay, Doctor Bell said he had not had an opportunity to satisfactorily investigate the mineral resources of the country. His own opportunities for discovery had been limited on account of the fact that when he was at the most likely places for finding gold or silver he had very little chance to get ashore. He had to take just what opportunity he had when going ashore with boats for ballast or to land materials at the stations. The main object of all the expeditions was to establish and supply the stations. If he had had an expedition under his own control, fitted out for that object, he had no doubt he could make valuable discoveries of minerals. He saw some quartz ledges himself. They varied in size. He could not look entirely for economic minerals, for in the few hours he had at any place he had to ascertain as much as possible of the geological structure of the country, and incidentally, if he found anything worthy of notice, he brought away specimens. He saw many large veins of quartz, but those from which he brought the specimens which happened to contain gold and silver were not so large as others he had seen. Some were several feet wide. He did not find visible gold at all.
As to the gold prospects in the central part of the Barren Lands, Inspector Pelletier, Royal Northwest Mounted Police, states in his report:—“In many places along the Thelon, great sand bars are prominent, creeks flowing into it do so over gravel beds and when this country is prospected I expect to hear of placer gold discoveries. It is a good country for prospectors. A prospecting outfit going there would find plenty of good timber to build their camp, and any amount of fuel. They would have to carry only certain kinds of provisions, for fish is abundant. Musk-ox and deer at certain times of the year are very numerous.”
Lignite and Soft Coal.
Large areas of lignite and soft coal have been discovered along the shores of Arctic sea between the Mackenzie and the Coppermine and in the islands off the coast.
Doctor Richardson in 1826 found the Arctic coast east of Cape Bathurst to consist of precipitous banks, similar in structure to the bituminous shale cliffs at Whitby in Yorkshire. This shale was in a state of ignition in many places.
According to the same authority “carboniferous limestone exists on the northwestern coast of Banks island, on Melville and Bathurst islands. At Village point, in latitude 76° 40′ and longitude 97° west, at Depot point, Grinnell land (of Belcher), latitude 77° 5′ north, and at various other places in the carboniferous limestone tract there are coal beds. These coal beds are considered by Professor Houghton to be very low down in the carboniferous series.”
In a valley in Banks island some distance from the coast and three hundred feet above sea level, Richardson relates that Captain McClure and Doctor Armstrong visited a carboniferous deposit. “The ends of trunks and branches of trees,” says the last-named officer, “were seen protruding through the rich loamy soil in which they were imbedded. On excavating to some extent we found the entire hill to be a ligneous formation, being composed of the trunks and branches of trees, some of them dark and softened, in a state of semi-carbonization.”