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gold-bearing porphyry and volcanics. Tho pebbles in the creck
and fine materials are largely of the country rock. Undoubtedly
moh of the placer gold has been derived from this rock during
the process of cutting the canyon. North of the canyon 6 an
old channel filled by drift. Below the mill in places the old
and the new channels conform in position. The old channel

might contain more than the present channel, but considering the
extent of overburden it would appear probable that there is not
enough gold to make it workable, Profitable workings, if such
are possible, would appear to depend on having shallow ground

that could be mined cheaply.

Other Mineral Resources
Coal deposits that are bituminous and in places
anthracitic in character occur in the Skeena formation at many
places in the Bulkley and Babine belts. Lignite occurs in the
Upper Eocene or Oligocene strata, on Driftwood creek. In the
main the coal areas near the railway are small and although they

have been known for many years only small mines have been

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4

developed. The individual areas are described in detail in a
later part of this report.

Nothing in the character of the geology so far as kmown
encourages the belief that oil may be discovered in commercial
quantities. All of the older rocks and most of the rocks of the
Skeena formation are too much deformed and metamorphosed to

retain any oil thet may have been in them. The less metamorphosed

parts of the Skeena formation and the Tertiary rocks, besides
being non-marine and, therefore, not very likely to be sources of
oil, occur in too small areas, in such unfavourable structural
positions, and so close to the surface as to be unlikely to

retain any oil if it had been present. Small quantities of