GEOLOGY OF ARCTIC AMERICA 65 



peneplained surface, underlies all the later formations; but sedi- 

 mentary rocks of the early pre-Cambrian are seldom mentioned. 

 Bell describes crystalline limestones like the Grenville series on the 

 south shore of Baffin Island,^ and the maps give a separate color to 

 the Huronian, but the accompanying descriptions are so brief and 

 vague that the rocks referred to might belong anywhere in the early 

 pre-Cambrian, perhaps in the Timiskaming series, which has proved 

 to be so important in the gold regions of northern Ontario. It would 

 be of much theoretical interest, and perhaps of practical value in 

 opening up the Arctic regions to civilization, if the sediments and 

 basic and acid eruptives of the Keewatin and Timiskaming series, 

 which contain the great ore deposits of Ontario, should be found in 

 Greenland or Baffin Island or Ellesmere Island; and the natural 

 places to look for them would be the parts of those great islands colored 

 as Huronian or Archean on Low's map. 



Much more is known of the upper pre-Cambrian (Keweenawan) 

 on the mainland of Arctic Canada, where wide areas of basaltic lavas 

 and of sandstones and conglomerates of that age have attracted at- 

 tention because they contain native copper, as similar rocks do on the 

 shores of Lake Superior. 



The maps of Dawson and Low are unsatisfactory in regard to the 

 Keweenawan, which they include under the same color as the Ordo- 

 vician and Silurian. 



The most promising place for new discoveries of copper ore appears 

 to be about 40 miles northeast of the head of Prince Albert Sound, 

 according to reports of Eskimos to Stefansson and the Canadian 

 Arctic Expedition of 1913-1918.'^ The large masses of native copper 

 reported in this region probably come from outcrops of Keweenawan 

 rocks not yet seen by a white man ; and it hardly needs to be pointed 

 out that the development of an important mining region would have 

 far-reaching effects on the exploration of the North American Arctic 

 sector. 



Older Paleozoic 



The older Paleozoic formations, including the Ordovician, Silurian, 

 and Devonian, usually lie flatly upon the Archean peneplain; and 

 sometimes hard limestones of these ages stand up as tablelands and 

 present lofty cliffs toward the sea. From some of the outcrops many 

 marine fossils have been collected, and it is interesting to note that the 

 fauna is more European than American, suggesting shallow waters 



8 Robert Bell: Observations on the Geology, Mineralogy, Zoology, and Botany of the Labrador 

 Coast, Hudson's Strait and Bay, Rept. Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Canada for 1882-83-84, subreport 

 DD, Montreal, 1S84; idem: Observations on the Geology, Zoology, and Botany of Hudson's Strait 

 and Bay Made in 1885, Ann. Rept. ditto, N. S., Vol. I (for 1885), subreport DD, Montreal, 1885. 



' J. J. O'Neill: The Geology of the Arctic Coast of Canada West of the Kent Peninsula, Report 

 of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18, Vol. 11: Geology and Geography, Part A, Ottawa, 1924, 

 p. 54 and map, p. 55. 



