The following reports have been made on
the properties after many weeks’
careful examination

Report on the Graham Island Coal Property

By James W. FLANIGAN.

Merritt, B. C., Dec. 1, 1908.
GENTLEMEN:

Following your instructions of September 25, 1908, I
left Merritt, B. C., and proceeded to Vancouver, engaging
passage from there to Prince Rupert, B. C., on the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company’s steamer “Princess May.” 1]
arrived there on the 2nd of October and had to wait two
weeks for a vessel which would enable me to land at Mas-
sett, on the north coast of Graham Island. On the 15th
of the month I took passage on the Bocowitz S. Co.’s ves-
sel “Vadso,”’ which landed me the same day at Massett
Inlet opposite the Indian Village of that name.

Landing from the steamer by the aid of Indian canoes,
I took up my quarters at the residence of Henry Edenshaw,
head chief of the Haida Tribe. Here I procured as much
information as would be likely to be of value to me before
starting out on my inspection trip. The next day I secured
the services of two Indian guides and chartering a sailboat,
we sailed south on the Inlet to the mouth of the Yakoun
River, a stream flowing into Massett Inlet from the south.
It is along this river that the old coal properties have been
worked for some years back. The work, however, has been
only for development purposes and to show up the coal
seams which here crops to the surface at several points.
The coal here shows a clear seam, or rather three seams,
for there is a high-grade lignite, a first-class bituminous and
an anthracite, all in close proximity to each other, but dis-
turbed by volcanic action whih seems to have started here
and broken the uniformity to the south.

The exposed rocks show the Tertiary period, the rocks
carrying fossils of this age, developing to the north into
the cretaceous formation. The coal occurs uniformly inter-
stratified with sandstones.

After finishing my inspection of the southern exposures
we proceeded by boat up the Inlet to Massett, and from
there by horseback along the north beach to Chacon Point
and Tow Hill. At these two points a past disturbance has
moved the rocks from their original position and pushed
them upwards, disclosing the same sandstone formation
and coal outcrops as that on the Yagoon River. Along
the beach I picked up several small pieces of coal and lig-
nite, and the natives informed me that after a severe storm
huge chunks of coal are sometimes washed up on the
shore, which shows that the coal area extends out to sea,
the shelving formations crumbling with the action of the
waves, the coal being of light specific gravity, eventually

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