61

Details of Lakes:

The salt deposit in Goodenough lake (Figure 2, locality 21) was
worked at one time and the remains of a storage shed are still standing
on the shore. A great deal of the salt has been washed away by rain, but
about 16 cubic yards has been left. Analyses of this salt and of some
taken directly from the lake (Table VIII) show that it is an exceedingly
pure carbonate of soda. The brine examined by Wait contained 11-4 per
cent of solid matter at 60 degrees F. The lake, it was stated,! covered 20
acres and had at the end of the dry season a deposit-about 8 inches thick
over the greater part of it, but thinning to about 2 inches near the sides.
On this basis it was figured that 20,000 tons of solid salt was present.
The present area of the lake is nearly 15 acres, and if the relative quantity
of salt present be the same as before, only about 15,000 tons of salt would
crystallize out during the dry season, and a small additional quantity
would be present in the form of brine.

The following observations were made in September, 1919, when all
the lakes had shrunk greatly in volume as compared with their ccndition
in the previous summer of 1918. The brines were not in all cases tested,
but were assumed from the appearance and character of the soils and from
information received, to be mostly composed of sodium carbonate.
About three-quarters of a mile north of the road from Chasm station
to Big Bar lake on lots 1759, 1760 (Figure 2, locality 24) there is a crescent-
shaped lake. that covered a little over 8 acres to a depth that varied on an
average from about 6 inches at one end to 1 foot at the other. The specific
gravity of the water at a temperature of 17 degrees C. was 1-085. On lots
1739, 1749, and 1761, just northwest of Little White lake (Figure 2, local-
ity 25), is a lake which through continued evaporation had shrunk to two
small bodies. The larger covered 15-6 acres to an apparent.average depth
of 10 inches. The specific gravity of the brine at a temperature of 15
degrees C. was 1-135. The smaller covered 9-5 acres to an average depth
of about one foot, and the specific gravity of the brine at 15-3 degrees C.
was 1-160. A large lake on lot 1768, near the road from Meadow lake to
Chasm station (Figure 2, locality 23), covered from 60 to 80 acres and
the water had a specific gravity of 1-070 at a water temperature of 20
degrees C. The depth of this lake is probably 2 to 4 feet in the middle.
Directly east of this lake, and in the same lot is Last Chance lake, which
contains brine with a specific gravity of 1-170 when the water is 21 degrees
C. The lake covered nearly 40 acres and at the sides was very shallow.
An analysis of the salt deposited in the lake is given in Table VIII. The
water of a small lake situated west of the road leading to the two above
lakes, had a specific gravity of 1-030 at a water temperature of 17 degrees C.

On lots 1792 and 1793, about 34 miles west by north of 70 Mile House
(Figure 2, locality 26) soda was manufactured in the autumn of 1918 from
a lake covering about 85 acres, the waters of which were said to carry an
average of about 6 per cent of solid matter in the summer. The specific
eravity of the lake water, in the summer of 1919, was 1-055 at a water
temperature of 15 degrees C. which indicates a slightly lower percentage
of solids than stated above. ‘The lake is owned by the Pacific Coast
Contractors Limited, of Vancouver, who have installed an evaporating

1Geol. Surv., Can., Ann. Rept., vol. XI, 1898, p. 12R.
5172—5