[keele] MESOZOIC clays AND SANDS 27 



mentions in his report that they might be used for the manufacture 

 of firebrick if ever any metallurgical operations were undertaken in 

 the region. 



Other lignite seams which occur farther north on Missinaibi 

 river were examined during the same season, but these appear to be 

 merely beds of indurated peat lying amongst inter-Glacial materials. 



In 1904 Mr. J. M. Bell, while engaged in exploration for minerals 

 of economic value in northern Ontario, discovered a bed of white clay 

 on Wabiskagami river, a tributary of Missinaibi river. ^ This deposit 

 is situated about 2 miles west of ,the one discovered by Mr. Borron 

 in 1880. 



In 1908 considerable attention was attracted to the possibilities 

 of the occurrence of merchantable coal in this region, and most of the 

 outcrops of lignite described by Messrs. Bell and Borron were staked 

 by prospectors. 



In 1910 Professor M. B. Baker investigated the lignite and iron 

 ore deposits on Mattagami river,- and made borings on the lignite 

 seam discovered by Mr. Borron in 1882. 



In 1913 Messrs. Tees Curran and H. A. Calkins staked claims 

 and did assessment work on the deposits on Missinaibi and Wabis- 

 kagami rivers. The result of their work showed that the clays and 

 sands at that point were over 70 feet thick. 



Topography 



A wide belt of lowland plain, underlain chiefly by Palaeozoic 

 rock, encircles the southern and western portion of Hudson bay, in 

 northern Ontario. A great area of Pre-Cambrian rocks, standing at 

 a somewhat higher elevation, lies south of the Palaeozoic plain. The 

 rocks of both the plain and the upland are generally concealed by a 

 thick sheet of glacial drift, principally boulder clay. 



A considerable portion of the drainage from the Pre-Cambrian 

 upland flows northward, and the streams which carry it have cut 

 down through the glacial drift, reaching in some places the underlying 

 bedrock. 



The Abitibi, Mattagami, and. Missinaibi, with their numerous 

 tributaries, are the principal streams of the region. Albany river and 

 its branches drain the country to the west of these streams, but no 

 undoubted occurrence of Cretaceous or Tertiary deposits has, so far, 

 been discovered in the basin of this stream. 



1 Bureau of Mines, Ontario, 1904, Vol. LXIII, p. 160. 

 - Ontario Bureau of Mines, Vol. XX, part I, p. 236. 



