AND GEOLOGY OF THE COLUMBIA. 101 



iuto the river a short distance away. Large deposits of travertine have been made by 

 this aud other streams. 



Al)out eight or ten miles from the last schists, similar rocks are ouce more found, ris- 

 ing as an abrupt hill. With the exception of a portion of limestone just at the head ot 

 Luke Timbaskis, we iind only schists for the rest of the way. They appear to be more 

 thoroughly crystalline than tho.se at Surprise Eapids, where a few specimens looked like 

 highly metamorphosed conglomerates, and contained blebs of quartz aud felspar. The 

 Timbaskis schists are light, lustrous grey, and usually contain iunumeral)le garnets, small 

 and large, and often large prisms of staurolite, less frec^uenfly crystals of disthene. 



These schists dip 50° to 80° toward the N.N.E. and north; that is, in the opposite 

 direction from the Surprise Eapids' schists. 



From the foregoing it is clear that the boundary between the (Archœan ?) schists aud 

 the Palœozoic limestones, slates and quartzites of the Kockies, for the greater part of the 

 distance between Surprise Rapids and Lake Timbaskis, lies north-east of the Columbia. 

 The general course of this portion of the Columbia corresponds to the usual strike of 

 the rocks. 



(6.) Lake Timbaskis to Death Rapids.— The trail appears to end at Lake Tim- 

 baskis, and since a tributary entering from the north-east at the head of the lake proved 

 difficult to cross, being too wide to be bridged with a tree, I went no farther. The lake 

 is probably ten miles long by two broad, and is nobly placed among lofty mountains 

 rising in forest covered slopes from its margin. It is the home of innumerable wild 

 geese, which kept up a constant turmoil at the time of my visit. 



Prospectors who have rounded the bend, report eighteen miles of canyon and rapids 

 just below the lake, so that only staunch boats can make their way down safely. A little 

 beyond is the Big Bend, where the Columbia receives the Whirlpool and Canoe Rivers 

 before starting southward. 



The first point visited by the writer on the other side of the bend is Death Rapids,' 

 about fifty miles above Revelstoke, where the Canadian Pacific, coming dowm the 

 Illecillewaet out of Roger's Pass, crosses the Columbia for the second time. 



(1.) The Big Bend Gold Region.— Two rivers find their way into the Columbia 

 from the Selkirks near Death Rapids, Gold Creek a little above, and Downie Creek, 

 which would be counted a considerable river in most regions, five miles below the 

 rapids. About two mil(>s above the mouth of Downie Creek is Laporte, the gateway to 

 the once famous mining region of the Big Bend. 



From this point a fairly good trail strikes iuto the Selkirks to a point on Gold Creek 

 where it is joined by McCulloch Creek flowing from the north. Four miles further 

 inland, French Creek empties into Gold Creek from the sam(^ side. Th(^ placers of these 

 two small creeks afibrded at least a quarter of a million dollars' worth of gold during the 

 Big Bend excitement a quarter of a century ago.' The trail follows Gold Creek up into 

 the mountains aud probably crosses the divide to meet the trail ending at Lake 

 Tiiubaskis. 



' " Dalles de Mort," so named from sixteen men having been drowned there years ago- 



2 See Dr. Geo. M. Dawson's Mineral Wealth of British Columbia, which contains a large store of valuable 

 information on this and other regions of British Columbia. 



