j<>07 DFPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 



boundary runs through timber of this class, with some very good tamarac 

 id the low places. This class of timber appears to extend for a consider- 

 able distance north of Block 8. On the west boundary the timber is a rather 

 poor average, being composed of jack pine, spruce, white birch and poplar 

 on the higher lands, with spruce, tamarac and balsam in the muskegs. The 

 average size of all this timber is small, but there is a consiiderable quantity 

 of lar^^e timber throughout. Southwest of Pine Lake a fine block of red pine 

 has recently been cut. The stumps show that nearly all of this timber was 

 inside of Block 8. The timber along the rest of the south boundary is 

 similar to that already described, except that south of Young Lake, there 

 are some scattered white pine trees, all of wEich appear to be inside of Block 

 8. A large number of these trees, however, are unsound. North of Young 

 Lake there is an area of brule, about twenty-five years old, which extends 

 back for about half a mile from the lake, and appears to run northeast 

 towards Sturgeon Lake. A large portion of the block east of Lake of Bays 

 has been burnt over. One fire ran through about ten or twelve years ago, 

 and a p^Tialler one occurred about two years ago. Outside of these areas of 

 brule, the timber along the east limit of the block appears to be about the 

 same as on the west boundary, and I am convinced that the same descrip- 

 tion applie-' to practically the whole of the block. There are no water powers 

 of any magnitude, as there are no large rivers inside Block 8. On the 

 streams connecting Penassie Lake with Lake of Bays there is a rough rapid 

 having a fall of about twenty feet lin less than a quarter of a mile. On 

 Grassy River, there is a fall of about fifteen feet in about six chains a short 

 distance below Pine Lake. In neither instance, however, is the volume of 

 water large enough to maintain a power of any great magnitude. No economic 

 minerals were met with, although, as before stated, considerable areas of 

 promising rocks occur, especially the Huronian series, in the southern part 

 of the block. 



The Thunder Bay Branch of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway crosses 

 the block near the southwest corner. The line crosses the Grassy River at 

 the rapids referred to above. 



Block 9. 



The survey of Block 9 was commenced at the eighteenth mile post 

 fni'^rked XVTTI. M.) on the first meridian run by Ontario Land Surveyor 

 Alexander Niven in 1897, west of the boundary between the districts of 

 Thunder Bay and Rainy River, this point being the southwest corner of 

 Block 9. From this point a line was run due east astronomically a distance 

 of six miles, thence north astrooiomically a distance of eighteen miles, nineteen 

 rhains, fo^ links, to Ontario Land Surveyor Niven's base line run in 1897. 

 The base line was intersected at a point eleven chains thirty links east of 

 the twenty-thiT-d mile post (marked XXIII. M."). The north and west 

 boundaries of Block 9 were run as base and meridian lines by Ontario Land 

 Surveyor Niven in 1897. An iron post one and three-quarter inches in 

 diameter was planted by Ontario Land Surveyor Niven at the eighteenth 

 mile on the meridian above referred to. This post was marked "XVIII. M." 

 on the south side by Mr. Niven. I marked this post "G.T.R., Block Nine" 

 on the northeast side. The end of the sixth mile on the south boundary 

 being the southeast corner of Block 9 calne in the water of Otter Lake. The 

 point where the east boundary of Block 9 intersected the shore of Otter Lake 

 was located by means of a triangulation, the details of which are shown in 

 the field notes. At a point above high water near the eastern extremity of 



