23 



Prince Rupert. — Prince Rupert is at present a strag- 

 gling town of about 5,000 inhabitants, but has hopes of 

 some day becoming a great world port. It possesses a 

 magnificent harbour, and is the Pacific Coast terminus 

 of the Grand Trunk Pacific railroad, the shortest route to 

 the Orient. It is at present the centre of large and thriving 

 fishing and lumbering industries, and its northerly situation 

 places it in a position to control the trade both of the Yukon 

 and the great interior region of northern British Columbia. 

 This trade is comparatively small at present, but must 

 rapidly expand with the settlement of the country and the 

 development of the mining industry. 



Leaving Prince Rupert, the railroad partly rounds 

 Kaien island, and at Mile 7, crosses to the mainland, 

 where it follows up the bold northern shore of the island- 

 filled estuary of the Skeena. On the left are the low 

 Porpoise islands, and farther on, Smith island, a wooded 

 mountain block rising steeply from the sea, is passed. 



The rocks along this part of the route consist of the 

 greyish, easterly dipping, quartz mica, and hornblende 

 schists of the Prince Rupert formation, intruded by a 

 few granitic dykes and stocks. They are traversed by 

 numerous small quartz and quartz-calcite veins, and, in 

 places, are spotted with small garnets. These rocks are 

 well exposed in the vicinity of Prince Rupert, and in long 

 cuts all along the railway. 



Mile 16. — The last exposure of the Prince Rupert 

 schists occurs at this point. They are here in close 

 proximity to the Coast Range batholith, and in places 

 have a striped appearance, due to the intrusion of small 

 aplitic dykes and to the partial silicification of thin bands 

 parallel to the bedding planes. 



The actual contact between the schists and batho- 

 lithic rocks is concealed along the railway. 



Mile 16-7. — Sockeye. — Immediately west of Sockeye 

 station coarse gneissic granodiorites occur, and these 

 rocks, the main component of the batholith, are exposed 

 at intervals for many miles eastward. 



Mile 17-5. — Good sections of the gneissoid granodio- 

 rites occur at this point. They are cut by numerous light 

 coloured aplitic dykes and by large, coarse textured 

 pegmatite dykes often with an aplitic border. The dykes 

 are not all contemporaneous, as they are frequently found 

 cutting each other, and are occasionally faulted. 



