242 PE. EOBEET BELL ON THE GEOLOGY AND ECONOMIC 



these rocks which had been distinctly traced out lie between the upper lakes of the St. 

 Lawrence and James Bay, but other areas are known to exist far to the north-west and 

 north-east. They occur in considerable force on the northern side of Athabasca Lake, and 

 rocks which appear to correspond with them are abundant to the north of G-reat Slave 

 Lake. Dr. Bell had found a basin of Hiironiau rocks, measixriug about 180 miles in 

 length, to the north-east of Lake Winnipeg. They are reported in various parts of the 

 Labrador peninsula as far as the Uugava River, and the author had found them on the east 

 side of Hudson Bay, at Cape Hope, the Paint Hills and Richmond G-ulf, and had obtained 

 specimens of similar rocks from near Moscjuito Bay. Specimens which he had procured 

 through the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Eskimo from the west side of 

 the Bay between Chesterfield Inlet and Knap Bay, indicated the existence of the Huron- 

 ian series along that coast. 



At Marble Island, on the same side of Hudson Bay, and opposite the part of the coast 

 which has just been referred to, a white rock is reported to be largely developed. The 

 author had received specimens of it from officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, and found 

 it to consist of a fine-grained white quartzite, resembling saccharoidal marble, from which 

 circiimstauce the island has probably deriA^ed its name. This rock appears to be identical 

 with the quartzites which form so conspicuous a feature in the typical Hurouian of Lake 

 Huron, and we may have, on this i)art of Hudson Bay, a repetition of the same series. Dr. 

 Bell had found boulders of white c[uartzite thickly scattered on the surface at the Methy 

 Portage, and he had been informed by Mr. Roderick Ross that similar boulders were 

 abundant in various parts of the country to the uoith-east of Lake Athabasca. 



Around the mouth of the Churchill River, on the same side of the Bay, and for some 

 miles along the coast to the east of it, are found massive and also thinly-bedded grey 

 argillaceous quartziies with conglomerate beds (the well-rounded iiebbles of which are 

 mostly of white cjuartz), iuterstratified with an occasional thin shaley layer of a rather 

 darker color than the mass. These strata may form part of the Huronian series, but they 

 also resemble the gold-bearing rocks of Nova Scotia, and, like them, hold veins of white 

 quartz. Assays of samj)les from six of these veins, all of which contained more or less 

 specular iron, did not, however, show any traces of the precious metal. 



On the Little Whale River and in Richmond Gulf, on the east side of the Bay, 

 another set of rocks is found following the Huronian and underlying unconformably the 

 Nipigon series, which occurs in great force on this part of the coast. This intermediate 

 formation consists of great beds of hard red silicious conglomerate and red and grey sand- 

 stones with some red shales, and appears to have a considerable volume. 



Captain H. P. Dawson, R.A., who had charge, during 1883, of the Observatory station 

 of the Circumpolar Commission at Fort Rae, on Great Slave Lake, collected specimens of 

 the rocks in situ, and made notes on the geology of the surrounding country at Dr. Bell's 

 request. On the shores and islands of the long northern arm of the lake, he found a red 

 conglomerate which may be equivalent to that which occurs at Richmond Gulf ; also 

 fine-grained grey and green quartzites. Mr. A. S. Cochrane, one of the writer's assistants, 

 found a hard red sandstone and conglomerate with white quartz pebbles at the east end 

 of Lake Athabasca, and similar rocks are reported to occiir on the Clearwater River above 

 the Methy Portage, and again to the south of Crée Lake, which lies between Isle à la 

 Crosse and Lake Athabasca. Sir John Richardson describes a rock between the eastern 



