74 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



of the Little Missinaibi River occupies the central, southerly and westerly por- 

 tions of the area surveyed, while Hay Creek and its tributaries drain the water 

 from the northeasterly townships directly into the Missinaibi River, a few 

 miles below the foot of Missinaibi Lake. Little Missinaibi Lake, a straggling 

 sheet of water with numerous long winding bays, lies in the southwesterly 

 portion of a broad depression running in a general northeasterly direction across 

 the Townships of Addision, Clifton, Busby and Calais. A low divide separates 

 the waters of this depression near the northeast corner of the Township of 

 Clifton, and the waters to the southwest flow in a general nortjiwesterly direction, 

 through a gap in the ridges, to Missinaibi Lake. This stream is the Little Mis- 

 sinaibi River. The waters of the northeasterly part are the source of Hay 

 Creek. 



The terrain of the townships is of the character common to most of the 

 lands along the height of land between the waters of the St. Lawrence and 

 Moose Rivers. Ridges of Laurentian rock rise from two hundred to three hun- 

 dred feet above the lakes, and the lower lands, where not exposing similar rock, 

 are covered with coarse glacial deposits of sand and gravel. 



The country abounds in lakes. Of these, the largest, exclusive of. Missinaibi 

 Lake, is Little Missinaibi Lake, mentioned above, which has an extreme length 

 of about ten miles. There are several others, however, from three to four miles 

 long. 



Timber. 



Fire swept through the Townships of Abbey, Missinaibi, the north half of 

 Admiral, the south part of Busby, and part of Calais, about twenty years ago. 

 In consequence, a large part of the timber in these townships has been destroyed, 

 and there is now growing up a dense second growth. Much of this new growth 

 is jack pine, and in time, provided the district is not again visited by fire, there 

 will be much valuable tie timber produced. The three southerly townships, 

 Addison, Chaplin and Manning, contain to-day the most valuable timber. 

 Good stands of jack pine and spruce were found on each of the meridians bound- 

 ing these townships, while scattered specimens of white pine were seen on the 

 west boundary of the Township of Manning. 



In general the quality of the timber over the rest of the area surveyed is not 

 quite so good, but numerous more or less extensive groves of good spruce and 

 jack pine were interspersed between areas sometimes heavily wooded with 

 balsam, poplar and birch, but more often covered with somewhat scattered 

 timber rising above a heavy growth of alder, maple and hazel underbrush. 



Rock. 



The rock formation is of Laurentian origin and is mainly granite, though 

 occasional outcroppings of diabase, gneiss and feldspar were seen. The area did 

 not seem quite so promising from a mining standpoint as that surveyed in the 

 previous year, but the rock is of the same general character, and it is possible 

 that thorough prospecting will disclose mineral bearing formations worthy of 

 attention by the miner. 



Soil. 



These townships are entirely unsuitable for agriculture. Where the rock 

 is not expQsed, the surface is covered with sand, gravel and boulders. There 

 are, however, extensive marsh lands on either side of Hay Creek, in Calais 

 Township, which migtit possibly be utilized some day for the production of hay. 



