QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 53 B 



this part of the formation, though no deposits of workable dimensions 

 were observed. Well-defined veins of quartz aud ealcite traverse the 

 islands in several places with general north-westerly and south-easterly 

 bearings, but were not found to contain any copper. 



The action of the weather on the limestone exposed between low-water Peculiar 

 mark and the edge of the woods causes them to assume a rough, pitted limestones. 

 surface, on which hollows are separated by steep, sharp-edged ridges and 

 brittle points, sustained generally by some siliceous or other impurity in 

 the stone. Where a hollow is formed which will contain sea or rain-water, 

 it may be noticed that its sides are eaten into along a line correspond- 

 ing with the height at which the water overflows, a circumstance, no 

 doubt depending on the absorption by the surface of the water, thus 

 for a time stagnant, of carbonic acid from the atmosphere. The pecu- 

 liarly rough character of these limestone surfaces is, no doubt, due in 

 part to the constitution of the rock, but also to the great rain-fall and 

 persistent cloudiness of the region. 



Limestones characterize the shores of the point on the north side Obscure fossils 

 of the inlet, opposite the inner end of the Copper Islands, dipping west- 

 ward on its eastern shore, and in association with argillites northward 

 on its southern. These are somewhat different in appearance from 

 those above described, and it is not known whether they represent a 

 broken portion of the westward continuation of the Copper Islands belt 

 or a second limestone zone of a. different horizon. 



The fossils obtained here are described by Mr. Whiteaves as. — 



1. Casts of a large Murchisonia or Loxonema, the whorls of which are 

 rather longer than wide. 



2. Casts of a discoidal spiral shell, which are so badly preserved 

 that it is impossible to tell whether they should be referred to the 

 Cephalopoda or Gasteropoda. 



On the north side of a small cove on the east side of the point, the copper mine, 

 greatest amount of exploratory work in connection with the attempt 

 at copper mining, referred to on a former page (p. 17 R), has been 

 carried on. One small shaft, probably of inconsiderable depth, is on a 

 hard, irregular vein of qurrtz, which appears to hold a trace of copper 

 only on one side. In a second locality a horizontal opening has first 

 been made in the face of a low cliff, not far above high- water mark, 

 and from this a shaft has been sunk. The shaft is now inaccessible, 

 and the whole of the material excavated has been carried away by the 

 sea, so that no idea of its depth or the quality of ore obtained in its 

 bottom can be formed. There is no true vein here, but magnetic iron 

 ore, with a little copper pyrites, forms bunches of irregular form 

 penetrating the country rock at the sides of a compact greenish dyke, 



