13

(2) Hart River

Mr. W. E. Cockfield has furnished the following note. “Frank Rae
of Dawson has submitted a specimen of fairly pure hematite. This
specimen is reported to come from the east fork of Hart river, about
30 miles north from the height of land between Yukon and Mackenzie
River basins. Mr. Rae claims that there are extensive deposits of hematite
in that vicinity.”

This reported occurrence of iron ore presumably is of the same general
nature as that of occurrences farther east in the basin of Wind and other
rivers. (See immediately succeeding description.)

(3) Wind, Bonnet Plume, and Rackla Rivers

Sources af Information. Keele, J.: ‘Report on the Upper Stewart River’’; Geol. Surv., Canada,
pete.

Camsell, C.: “‘Report on the Peel River and Tributaries, Yukon and Mackenzie”; Geol.
Surv., Canada, 1906, pp. 23 and 46.

“The existence of large bodies of iron ore at the headwaters of the
Wind and Bonnet Plume rivers has been known for some years. Outcrops
of this ore were seen by a few of the gold-seekers who journeyed to the
Yukon by this route. The drift from these bodies is widespread in the
basin of both the Peel and Stewart rivers . . . . On Rackla river

. . . . Which apparently heads near the source of the iron, larger
fragments arefound” . . . |!

“Quantities of float of a banded jaspery iron ore were found at the

mouth of Bear river and I am informed . . . . that the float ore
becomes more common higher up the stream and on the portage to the
Bonnet Plume river forms a large proportion of the drift. . . . The

same float also occurs in great quantities on the Bonnet Plume river
and also on the Snake. see ae

Keele states that the pebbles of ore . . . . “show an exceedingly
fine-grained, very compact hematite some of which also contains thin bands
of red jaspilite. Small boulders showing bands of pure ore 4 or 5 inches
thick were found near the forks of Rackla river.’’ The iron ore float is
described by Camsell in much the same terms, except that magnetite is
stated to accompany the hematite.

The distance between Hart river (See preceding description) and
Rackla river is 140 miles in a southeasterly direction about parallel to
the general trend of the strata of Ogilvie mountains. The same general
type of iron ore appears to be present somewhere in the respective water-
sheds of the two rivers. The ore is presumably of a sedimentary type
and possibly outcrops elsewhere in the general vicinity of the divide
between Mackenzie and Yukon rivers. The associated strata may
be the equivalents of the Tindir group, presumably of Precambrian age,
which, as developed near the International Boundary, 120 miles west
of Hart river, also carries bedded iron ores (See page 11).

1 Keele, J.: Op. cit., p. 22.
2 Camsell, C.: Op. cit., p. 23.
17135—243