17 



Kitsalas Formation. The Coast Range batholith is 

 bordered on the east along the Skeena river by a wide belt 

 of volcanics associated with some sedimentary rocks, 

 which have been grouped together as the Kitsalas forma- 

 tion. They are repeatedly intruded by granitic dykes and 

 stocks, and in places, are somewhat schistose, but the 

 alteration is nowhere so complete as in the rocks flanking 

 the batholith on the west. Ordinarily they are greenish 

 to purplish massive rocks spotted with large, rounded, and 

 irregular areas of epidote, and lined along fracture planes 

 with the same mineral. 



The formation is made up near the batholith of porphy- 

 rites, tuffs, and coarse fragmentals, welded closely to- 

 gether, and seldom showing traces of bedding or banding. 

 Farther to the east, the volcanics alternate with dark and 

 light grey, micaceous sedimentaries. The rocks are every- 

 where highly altered, in places to such an extent as to 

 obscure their origin, but are seldom conspicuously schistose, 

 except along fracture zones. 



The age of the old volcanic complex, represented by 

 the Kitsalas formation, is uncertain. It is older than the 

 Coast Range batholith and is placed tentatively in the 

 Triassic. 



Prince Rupert Formation. The Coast range in 

 the vicinity of Prince Rupert is flanked on the west by a 

 wide band of metamorphic rocks, for which the name 

 Prince Rupert formation is proposed. These rocks, 

 originally, were mostly argillaceous, siliceous and calcareous 

 sediments, but have been intensely altered and converted 

 into mica, quartz mica, and hornblende schists, and 

 crystalline limestones. Occasional areas of diorite or 

 gabbro, intruded prior to the folding of the region, are now 

 represented by coarse hornblende schists. West of Prince 

 Rupert, in the western part of Digby island, green chloritic 

 and hornblende schists, derived from fragmental and 

 massive volcanic rocks, occur interbanded with the dark 

 grey, sedimentary schists. 



In the section exposed along the railway from Prince 

 Rupert eastward to the western edge of the Coast Range 

 batholith, the limestones and crushed volcanics are absent, 

 and the principal variety is a moderately coarse, well 

 crystallized, quartz mica schist, made up mostly of biotite 

 and angular quartz grains, arranged in alternating lines 



34883—2 



