Fer eat me See ettllswntory: Eveninger heehee Cre gets Pap eihe =") scabitaassat 33 i oases 23598 See ee ee aie * a one Ss runar iron istwsealA pea A een £ ehacs ; ae er " rpcate Se 3 ui 106 the river is wide and filled with low islands and bars, some of which are auriferous. McCullough’s bar, on which gold in paying quantities was first discovered on the Liard, occurs in this vicinity. Colours of gold were also obtained on the Liard at the mouth of Fort Nelson river. Camsell, in reporting on the Peel river and its tributaries, states that “Some coarse colours of gold were panned out from a shovelful of dirt scraped from the rim rock at the mouth of Little Wind river,” but only very fine colours were obtained from the gravels of the mountain section of Wind river. Gold is reported to have been found in the gravels of Hungry creek, but “very little indication, however, of placer gold was found on the bars within five miles of its mouth. As the stream rises in a large lake twelve or fifteen miles up, and flows through a low muskeg country to join the Wind river, it appears to be rather an unpromising place for the occurrence of gold, but some of its tributaries which flow through a more hilly country might carry the precious metal.” “In panning for gold on a bar on the Peel river above the mouth of the Wind half a dozen fine colours were obtained, showing that this stream contains more of that metal than the Wind river. Gold is reported to have been found by the Indians in the gravels of the Bonnet Plume river, ‘and some specimens were exhibited; time, however, did not permit us to substantiate this report.”? ah ; Only a small part of the area underlain by Precambrian formations has been explored. This part is underlain chiefly by granites and gneisses, and these, wherever they have been examined in this and other parts of the Canadian Shield, have as a rule offered very little encouragement to the prospector. The areas of altered sediments and basic igneous rocks that are found north of lake Athabaska and north of Great Slave lake offer more favourable ground for prospecting. A sample, weighing 5 ounces and consisting of weathered crystalline dolomite, carrying some iron pyrites and -a very little brown zine: blende, was examined by the Geological Survey for Mr. E. A. Blakeney and found to carry 2-158 ounces of gold and 0-408 ounce of silver to the ton. The sample was said to have been taken at a depth of 14 feet from one of a series of claims lying within a radius of 10 miles of the mouth of Yellowknife river, on the north side of Great Slave lake? . The glaciation to which the Precambrian area was subjected renders the occurrence of important placers highly improbable. GYPSUM Gypsum is exposed at many points in the Mackenzie basin. The deposits that are most likely to prove of commercial interest are those occurring on Peace river and in the escarpment to the west of Slave river. *Gypsum is exposed in cliffs (Plate XTIT) on both banks of Peace river, almost continuously for a distance of 15 miles below Little rapids. The bottom of the bed is concealed, but the exposed part varies in thickness from a few feet to 50 feet, an exposure of 50 feet occurring on the south side of the river at the foot of the rapids. The surface features indicate that the bed extends back from the river a considerable distance. The Sypsum is usually white and 1Camsell, (C., Geol. Surv., Can., Ann. Rept., vol. XVI, p. 46 CC. 2Geol. Surv., Can., vol. XI, p. 33 R; 3 Macoun, John, Geol. Surv., Can., Rept. of Prog., 1875-76, p. 89. Camsell, ‘C., Geol. Surv., ‘Can., Sum. Rept., 1916.