QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 1'J B 



ings have much deteriorated in condition. I shall therefore briefly 

 allude to the facts established in Mr. Richardson's report, to which 

 reference must be made for the details of his observations.* 



The position of the coal is best shown in the opening called Hooper Hooper Creek 

 Creek Tunnel in Mr. Richardson's report, but spoken of as King's nei. 

 Opening and Nicholson's Tunnel in reports addressed to the Company. 

 This is situated on the right or west bank of Hooper Creek, where it 

 descends steeply from the base of Mount Seymour before reaching the 

 less steeply inclined valley by which it flows to Shallow Bay. This 

 tunnel has been driven, according to Mr. Richardson, in a direction 

 K 69° W. for 190 feet through vertical beds of black shale, with clay 

 ironstone. At this point it intersected the coal, and followed it in a 

 bearing N. 53° W., Gradually turning to N. 29° E. in a distance of about Appearance 



° ' ° • / ° and thickness 



450 feet. Where first struck the coal showed from two to three feet of coal. 

 thick of good anthracite. It increased in a short distance to a total 

 thickness of about six feet, in which there were two veins of pure coal 

 averaging three feet, and one foot three inches in thickness respectively, 

 but separated by a shaly midrib of about six inches. Towards the end 

 of the tunnel the seam gradually narrowed, and where the work was 

 stopped Mr. Richardson could not convince himself that any coal was 

 present, though it is stated in a report made to the Directors in 1869 £°yonTwork- 

 that the seam where abandoned had again expanded to a width of one 1Dgs - 

 foot six inches. Mr. Deans also informs me that by removing the 

 surface covering he has traced the seam, though in a broken and 

 weathered state, some distance beyond the position of the end of the 

 tunnel, so that there is no reason to believe that the coal absolutely 

 terminates at this point. This outcrop called King's vein was dis- 

 covered by Mr. King in 1861, and after it had been opened b}- the 

 tunnel above described, in 1869, about 800 tons of coal were extracted, 

 and a portion of it shipped to Victoria. The anthracite rests either Coal shipped, 

 directly on a tufaceous or felspathic sandstone like that formerly 

 described as characterizing the summit of Subdivision D., or with the 

 intermediation of a thin and irregular layer of compact black shale. It 

 is overlain by similar black shales, which in some places hold abundance 

 of Unio Hubbardi, and show occasional films of anthracite. The surface Position of the 

 on which the coal lies has been, undulating, and the irregularity of the 

 deposit has been increased by subsequent small local disturbances, 

 evidenced by slickensided surfaces. The beds are now either vertical 

 or slightly overturned. In working in this tunnel the quantity of 

 inflammable gas exuding from the shales was so great as to necessitate 

 the use of safety-lamps. In other smaller openings, made lower down 

 Hooper Creek on the same side, no coal appears to have been found, 



* Keport of Progress, 1872-73, p. 57. 



