THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION, 4f 



PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND NATURAL RESOURCES. 



After the account already given of the Arch^en rocks of the 

 New Ontario, it is not necessary to write more than a few words on 

 jts geology. Belts of the Huronian system of rocks, running gener- 

 ally in a northeast and southwest direction overlie the Laurentians 

 all the way from Lake of the Woods to the Ottawa river, and extend 

 to the southern limits of the territory along the international bound- 

 ary and the shores of lake Superior and lake Huron. What is known 

 as the " great belt " of this system stretches from lake Superior north 

 of lake Huron to lake Mistassini in Quebec, a length of about 700 

 miles. Around lake Superior there are Cambrian rocks ^ (of the 

 Animikie and Nipigon series) over the Huronian, and it is thought 

 also that there is an area of Lower Cambrian north of lake Huron, 

 in the basin of the Vermilion river, the length of which is thirty-six 

 miles and the greatest breadth 8 miles. Around Sault Ste. Marie is 

 a formation of red sandstone which is believed to be of Potsdam 

 age ; west and northwest of lake Temiscaming is an important area 

 of Niagara limestones ; while on the Hudson Bay slope, lying up 

 over the Laurentian and Huronian rocks and extending from the 

 eastern boundary of the Province westward beyond the Kenogami 

 river, are several formations of the Silurian and Devonian systems, 

 including the Niagara, Onondaga and Corniferous rocks. In the 

 region southwest of James bay, Dr. Bell says, the Corniferous forma- 



of surveyors and explorers in this Province, was that all that northern 

 region was a cold rocky waste, and certainly any one who would visit the 

 head waters of any of our large rivers flowing into the St. Lawrence from 

 the north would naturally be impressed with the feeling that there was 

 little use in searching for anything worth having, excepting perhaps fish, 

 game and minerals, any farther north, and I must confess that this was 

 my own impression until last summer. On St. Jean Baptiste day, •24th 

 June last (1S94), the Reverend Father Gueguin said mass in my tent at the 

 foot of lake Dumoine. That reverend gentleman has been missionary among 

 the upper Ottawa and Hudson bay slope Indians for nearly thirty years. 

 After mass, as we were descending the Dumoine river in company with Mr. 

 L. A. Christopherson, Father Gueguin, in relating some of his experience 

 among the Indians, told me of having seen some good land and large tim- 

 ber in the neighborhood of lake Waswanipi, and strongly advised me to try 

 and explore that country. Mr. Christopherson, guardian of the Hudson 

 Bay Company's post at Grand Lake Victoria for the last twenty years, was 

 of a different opinion. He said that he did not think there was anything 

 worth having beyond the height of land. To use his own words: "The 

 interior Indians who visited the post could not get an axe-handle there.' " 

 This is in keeping with the traditional policy of the Hudson's Bay Company. 



