[ells] notes on the MINERAL FUEL SUPPLY OF CANADA 285 



Brief allusion has already been made to the presence of coal basins 

 south of the Canadian Pacific railway where several basins of Tertiary 

 sandstones and shale containing large deposits of excellent coal occur. 

 Among these may be mentioned the seams which outcrop at several 

 points in the valley of the Nicola river and lake, an area lying about fifty 

 miles south of Kamloops. This district is now being opened up by a 

 line of railway south from the Canadian Pacific at Spences Bridge to 

 the Similkameen valley. The Kicola coals have usually been referred 

 to as lignites, but the analyses of specimens from the outcrops on the 

 Coal gully, the Coldwater and from Quilchena shew them, at all these 

 places, to be bituminous coals of good grade, yielding an excellent coke. 

 In these basins a number of seams outcrop, of which on the Coal gully 

 there are at least four that range in tliickness from five to eighteen 

 feet; on the lower Coldwater the seam exposed and partly opened has a 

 thickness of over seven feet; and on the Quilchena south of Nicola lake, 

 where several seams outcrop, ranging from two to fifteen feet in thickness. 

 These coal basins are of considerable extent and must contain a large 

 amount of very exoellent fuel, of great value in view of the recent rail- 

 way extension and the development of the copper and other mines of 

 the district. From this area a large part of the fuel supply of British 

 Columbia will doubtless be obtained. 



To the south of this basin are the areas found along the Tulameen 

 and Similkameen rivers ahout fifty miles distant, but directly on the 

 lines of railway now being constructed through that part of the province. 

 The analyses of the coals from the former place shew them in part to be 

 high-grade coking coals and not lignite as once supposed, but at present 

 the extent of this basin has not been definitely ascertained. At the 

 junction of this stream with the Similkameen several seams have been 

 located, ranging from, one to over eighteen feet in thickness, but these are 

 rather of the nature of a high grade lignite or lignitic coal than a bitu- 

 minous coal. The deposits in this place are however important and will 

 be extensively utilized as soon as reached by the new line of railway. 

 It is also quite possible that^n the development of these seams the char- 

 acter of the fuel will change for the better, a feature which has been 

 found in other fields in British Columbia, such change being due to the 

 greater amount of metamorphism which the original lignite has under- 

 gione. 



These deposits are all south of the present line of the Canadian 

 Pacific railway, and will doubtless be important factors in the develop- 

 ment of the various mineral industries and smelters, since they repre- 

 sent the greater part of the good coking coals of south-western British 

 Columbia. They occur in sandstones and conglomerate with interstrati- 



