iwb i9io.] 303 



The lecture opened with a description of the broader features 

 of the Geology of Canada. The eastern portion of the country 

 is formed of rocks belonging to the pre-Cambrian formations, and 

 constituting a district rich in minerals, though of relatively little 

 importance from the point of view of agriculture. This great 

 plateau extends from the Atlantic coast to a line drawn from Lake 

 of the Woods through Lakes Winnipeg and Athabaska, and Great 

 Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake to the Arctic Ocean. The 

 whole plateau has been heavily glaciated, and consists of 

 innumerable roches moutonnees, those rounded and polished rocks 

 which bear unmistakable testimony to the action of ice. Between 

 the roches moutonnees lie tens of thousands of lakes, large and 

 small, but for the most part shallow, frequently connected one 

 with another by waterways navigable for canoes, and constituting 

 the trade routes of the district, which are only now being slowly 

 replaced by railways. The plateau is bounded on the South by 

 the St. Lawrence, which is navigable for ocean-going steamers as 

 far as Montreal, a distance of 1,000 miles from the head of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence and 2,000 from the Atlantic sea-board ; 

 while in a northerly direction it is bounded by Hudson's Bay and 

 the Arctic Ocean. On this plateau of ancient rocks, clothed for 

 the most part by pine trees, are to be found the principal mining 

 camps of Eastern Canada. Two of these are worthy of special 

 mention, the Silver Mining Camp of Cobalt and the Nickel and 

 Copper deposits in the neighbourhood of Sudbury, both in the 

 province of Ontario. 



The silver of the Cobalt Camp is found for the most part in 

 the metallic condition, and so rich are the veins that a single 

 trench 30 feet deep and 50 feet long, on a vein with an average 

 width of only 6 inches, has yielded ore worth over ^40,000, the 

 estimated cost of winning the ore being about $100 (say ^20) 

 per ton. The copper-nickel deposits of Sudbury are worked on a 

 large scale, and furnish a very large proportion of the world's 

 supply of nickel, which is used in the preparation of nickel-steel 

 for armour-plate and other purposes. 



