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for geological investigation and for the work of general supervision. Espec-
ial acknowledgment is also given to J. G. Pearcey and W. A. Bain who
had charge of the plane-table mapping and draughting.

Most of the development work was done on the iron deposits from
fifteen to twenty years ago, so that the luxuriant growth of salal and other
underbrush, combined with caving of tunnels and open-cuts, has rendered
many of the old workings difficult to find and impossible of access.

PREVIOUS WORK

In 1885, Dawson carried on the first geological work of note along the
west coast of Vancouver island, by making a systematic study of the
rocks exposed along the shore from cape Scott at the northeast extremity
to, and including, Quatsino sound. His report (2) is accompanied by a
geological map of this part of the island, and here, as elsewhere, his work
still stands as one of the leading contributions to the regional geology
of British Columbia. He makes no reference to the iron deposits of Quatsino
sound.

In his report on “The Mineral Wealth of British Columbia’ (3)
Dawson described briefly an occurrence of magnetite on Sooke peninsula
close to the southeast end of the island. No reference is made to the
discovery of the deposits nor to any previous literature on the locality.

Attempts to initiate an iron and steel industry on the Pacific coast,
commenced in 1880 when a small blast furnace ‘was erected at Irondale
in the state of Washington, for the manufacture of pig iron. It hada
daily capacity of 10 tons and was a hot-blast charcoal furnace. It was
operated for six months, and then was replaced by a 50-ton furnace, which
a few months later was reconstructed and for years turned out a good
grade of pig iron, until in 1891 it was closed down. In 1901 Pennsylvania
capital was interested in it. The Pacific Steel Company was organized
to acquire and operate it. The plant was modernized and about $100,000
expended on it, and in December, 1901, the manufacture of pig iron was
resumed.” Although this attempt was not a commercial success, it gave a
ereat stimulus to prospecting iron deposits along the coast of British Colum-
bia, and directed considerable attention to the possibilities of such deposits.
The Pacific Steel Company undertook the investigation and development
of some of these deposits, principally those on Sechart peninsula, Copper
island, and Sarita river.

In 1897 Kimball (5) published the first geological description of these
iron deposits in a paper dealing chiefly with the problem of genesis. He
states that, “the occurrences here referred to clearly conform to two separate
types of ferriferous deposits which it has seemed important to distinguish
as hydro-chemical replacements. . . . One type is a morphological
replacement of limestone by double decomposition between ferrous salts
and calcic carbonate, the former being generated from ferrous silicates;
the other type, a partial, and not necessarily pseudomorphic, replacement
of ferrous silicates in weathered basic rocks, or as more explicitly dis-
tinguished, a residual concentration or fixation of iron oxides incidental
to development of soluble alkaline carbonates from weathering oxidation
or splitting up of ferriferous silicates. In replacements of limestone

1 See General Review of Mining in British Columbia, Bull. 19, Victoria, B.C., quoted in “Tron Ore Deposits of

Vancouver and Texada Islands, British Columbia,”’ by E. Lindeman, 1901, p. 7.

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