66 NOTES ON MINERAL Kl'ELS OF CANADA. ELLS. 



sivelv uiined for local use at Kduiontou on the North Saskat- 

 chewan, and at several places nearer the United States bound- 

 ary. 



Passiuii' westward across the broad chain (d' the Kocky 

 Mountains rlierc follows a j^-reat belt of rocks, presenting a 

 number (d' formations ranging from the Carboniferous down 

 into the prc-Candji'ian, in which no coals may be expected. But 

 ab(»ur :.M)() miles east of Vancouxci- in a dii'ect line, or near 

 Sieanious on the Canadian l^ieitic I'ailwav, coal-bearing rocks 

 again make their ap])earance. These are of a still more recent 

 date than those (d' the plains, being for the most i)art of Tertiary 

 age. Owing, howexcr, to greater alteration, the lignite charac- 

 ter of the contained coals has been changed, so that the fuels 

 from these deposits, which occur for the most part as basins 

 resting on igneous rocks, are now in the form of time coals, a'ud 

 in many cases form a fuel of great value. The contained coals 

 are sometimes of large extent, ranging in thickness from thin 

 seams u]) to great beds of twenty feet, or even in some cases of 

 more tluui sixty feet in thickness. 



Among these important de))Osits may be mentioned those of 

 the Xicola and Similkameen valleys, lying to the south of the 

 Caiiadiaii Pacific railway: of the Xoi'th Th()ni[)s()n, 40 miles 

 north f)f Kandoo})s, and (d" the Marl)le (/anon a few iuilc'S north- 

 west of Asheroft. Further north, uunu'rous denosits of coal ar(^ 

 found, among the most imi)oi'tant of these being the recently 

 discovered areas in the Ihdkley valley, south of the Skeena 

 rivei", and not far fi'oni the projeeted line of the Craud Trunk 

 Pacific railway, where; large seams of high grade bitumin- 

 ous coals and semi-anthracites are ex])osed. These promise to 

 be of great valiu' on the advent of the railway. Along the upper 

 Waters of the Peace river, also, several large seams of fine 

 coal liave recently been located; but at pres(Mit these are not 

 available owing to distance from transportation. 



