1891.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 65> 



undoubted promise of making this camp one of the principal pro- 

 ducers of lead in Britisli Columbia, if not on the continent. , . . 

 The greatest masses of galena are contained in offshoots from, 

 this main vein on the easterly side, and are of great importance 

 and value. 



The surface indications on the vein proper for galena are, as 

 stated, not very numerous, but the moment it is crossed on the 

 Hendryx claims the ground is found to be strewn with masses 

 of carbonate, or galena more or less oxidized, and upon these 

 chutes there are pits and openings which reveal their extent. 



This galena property has been developed by a tunnel some 

 eight hundred feet long at an angle with the strike of the ore 

 body, which cuts, in its course, first about two hundred feet of 

 quartzite and mica schist, then a dike of porphyry six feet wide, 

 then forty-five feet of quartzite, then thirty feet of marble, then 

 seventy feet of sulphurets, and then alternations of limestone 

 and galena ore, over seventy feet of the latter being exposed 

 at one point, on which an upraise to the surface two hundred 

 and fifty feet above has been made, with drifts at the one hun- 

 dred and two hundred foot levels, showing large bodies of ore. 



It is safe to predict that this property, when an outlet is made 

 into the United States by railroad connection, and, above all, 

 when I'eciprocity with our northern neighbors becomes an estab- 

 lished fact, will form the basis of a large and profitable smelting 

 operation. The galena in this mine is low in silver, while that 

 of the average ore across the lake is quite high. One peculiarity, 

 by the way, of this district, which was new to me in my experi- 

 ence, was finding coarse-grained galena carrying considerable 

 silver, and the fine-grained galena comparatively poor in silver. 

 This is a reversal of the conditions usually found in lead-silver 

 ores. 



Tributary to the Kootenai Lake are already springing up nu- 

 merous promising mineral localities. The various creeks and 

 streams flowing into the lake bring down gold-bearing float, and 

 even coal, after freshets, has been found on the shores of upper 

 Kootenai. At Nelson and Toad Mountain are promising copper 

 camps, while from Goat River prospectors are bringing very 

 handsome specimens of copper sulphurets. The Toad Mountain 

 copper ore especially is high in silver. 



Development has practically but just commenced in this sec- 

 tion of British Columbia, and it is reasonably certain that the 

 great masses of the Selkirks in the area now practically unex- 

 plored, between tiie head of Kootenai Lake and the Canadian 

 Pacific Railroad, will yield considerable mineral. At any rate, 

 if the political horizon does not deceive us, the smelters of Mon- 



