Section III. 188*7. C 17 ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



II. — On a specimen of Canadian Native Platinum from British Columbia. 

 By G. Christian Hoffmann, F. Inst. Chem. 



(Read May 26, 1887.) 



The first mention made of the finding of native platinum in Canada is that by Dr. 

 T. Sterry Hunt, in the Eeport of Progress of the Geological Survey of Canada, for the year 

 1851-52 (p. 120.) He there states that it had been observed by him in the form of minute 

 scales and grains — together with small tin-white plates, generally hexagonal in form, of 

 osmiridium — in the gold washings of the Rivière du Loup, near its junction with the 

 Chaudière, Fief St. Charles, seigniory of Av^b( rt de I'lsle ; also, that specimens of both 

 these metals had been handed to him, which were said to have been found in the gold 

 washings of the Rivière des Plantes, in the neighbouring seigniory of Rigaud Vaudreuil, 

 which, together with that of Aubert de I'lsle, is in the County of Beauce, Province of 

 Quebec. 



It has, according to Dr. G. M. Dawson, since been met with, in association with 

 alluvial gold, in several localities in the Province of British Columbia, as for instance on 

 the Fraser River, about ten miles below Lillooet ; on Tranquille River flowing into 

 Kamloops Lake ; about three and a half miles above Yermilion Forks on the South 

 Similkameen, and on Granite Creek, a branch of the Tulameen or North Fork of the 

 Similkameen River. On the South Similkameen, the gold and platinum occur in rather 

 fine scales ; but, on Granite Creek, much heavier gold is found, and the associated 

 platinum is also in a much coarser form. The relative proportion of platinum to 

 gold, as occurring at these places, cannot be accurately stated ; it is, however, inferred 

 that the platinum forms but a small proportion of the whole. Dr. G. M. Dawson informs 

 me that there is every reason to believe that the gold and associated platinum of the two 

 last named localities are derived from veins or other deposits, occurring in a series of 

 schistose dioritic and felspathic rocks w^hich flank the granites and gneisses of the Cascade 

 or Coast Range at this point ; that these rocks, which are largely volcanic in origin, but 

 have since undergone much alteration, are with little doubt of Palseozic, and perhaps 

 partly of Mesozoic age. 



The specimen under consideration is from Granite Creek, and was very generously 

 furnished to the Geological Survey by Mr. T. Elwyn, Deputy Provincial Secretary of 

 British Columbia. 



It weighed 18'2(36 grams ; of this, 17894 grams consisted of native platinum, and the 

 balance of magnetite, rock-matter, a little pyrite, and a few flakes of gold — the latter of a 

 deep yellow color. The composition of the material was as follows : — 



Sec. iii, 1887. 3. 



