OFFICIAL JOURNEYS. 473 
fact that 25 years ago the 300,000 acres of the Southern Clay Belt were sold to settlers 
in blocks of 160 acres at the price of 50 cents per acre. 
The value of the farms to-day varies from $30 to $40 per acre. As high a price 
as $120 per acre has been obtained for certain farms during the immediate post-war 
years. 
Passing through the Clay Belt from Haileybury (north of Cobalt), 
_ there could be seen from the trains the scattered homesteads of settlers 
| taking advantage of the clearing of the forest by the devastating fires of 
recent years to bring the Clay Belt under cultivation. The contrast 
between the Clay Belt and the ‘ wilderness’ area beyond its limits is 
remarkable. Over the cleared areas only aspen bushes remain to mark 
the site of the original forest, but at Engelhart station Acer negundo and 
larch have been planted as ornamental trees. The level surface, the 
absence of bare rock, and the luxuriant growth of grasses and other herbs 
mark the contrast between this Clay Belt and the undulating areas where 
the Archean rocks outcrop, with alternation of swamps and rounded, 
ice-smoothed rock surfaces. 
The peculiar form and origin of Lake Timiskaming, an expansion of 
the Ottawa River sixty-seven miles long and five miles in maximum 
width, gave rise to discussion among the geographers in finding a generic 
name for a similar sequence of processes elsewhere ; it was suggested that 
the name of the lake might be so applied, as for example (especially in 
American usage) the name of Monadnock has come to be employed to 
signify a particular type of mountain-structure. 
At Swastika (392 m., 1006 ft.) the trains left the main railway track 
and proceeded along a new line to the mining centre of KIRKLAND LAKE. 
These were the first passenger-trains to pass over the line; in fact, the 
line was still under construction and the last spike of that section was 
driven as the first train came in sight. Guides conducted groups round 
the various mining buildings. There are several mines at Kirkland Lake ; 
the larger number of the party saw all the processes for extracting gold 
from the ore at the Wright-Hargreaves Mills. The ore treated in this 
district is reddish in colour, owing to the large amount of red porphyry 
which has been intruded among the other rocks. The ore was seen as 
it came from the mine, and the processes of crushing, cyaniding for 
extracting the gold from the slimed ore, treatment of the solution with 
zinc, and precipitation and recovery of the gold were witnessed. 
The assaying department was of special interest to some of the members. 
After the party had inspected the mills, many went to the village, 
which gives an excellent idea of a mining community in its early stages ; 
this gold-field was discovered in 1912. Others went to the Lake Shore 
Mine. In this mine at present the deepest shaft is 1000 feet; a small 
party was taken down, choosing to go to the 600-foot level, as more of the 
working could be seen there than in the lower levels. 
At Swastika some members of Section H (Anthropology) visited an English family 
who had emigrated from London some eighteen months previously. They had come 
from a one-roomed tenement, where they had suffered much in health and the husband 
had long periods of unemployment. In the brief period they had been in Canada 
circumstances had changed. The man was earning $100 per month, the wife was 
acting as a maternity nurse, earning $30 per case, and the children earn a little by 
‘picking berries. They occupied a frame-house with three rooms, a kitchen, electric 
ight, and a small garden plot. The children were now in good health and doing well 
at school, and none had a desire to return to London. 
