QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 85 B 



Masset Inlet volcanic rocks of Tertiary age still prevail, and as the 

 distance through to the west coast cannot be great and no high land 

 intervenes, it is probable that a considerable portion of the shore from 

 Hippa Island northward is also characterized by these rocks. Though 

 this part of the coast was not examined, tbe supposition is further 

 confirmed by the statement of "Vancouver that the coast to the north 

 of Hippa Island is less bold and broken than that southward, and by 

 the fact that I was shown by the Indians a fragment of amber said to Amber, 

 have been picked up on that part of the coast. The comparatively 

 shoal region to the north of the island doubtless depends on the sub- 

 marine extension of the Tertiary, while a great part of the strait 

 between Graham Island and the archipelago fringing the mainland 

 also probably lies over Tertiary rocks. As elsewhere mentioned, lignite 

 is washed ashore abundantly on the east coast of Graham Island. 



It is not improbable that strata of Tertiary age may underlie a part of Rocks atChin- 

 the coast about Spit Point, to the south of Skidegate Inlet, or at least Brook, 

 ma}' occur at no great distance off shore ; as specimens of lignite are 

 found there on the beach. On the north side of Skidegate Inlet, how- 

 ever, rocks of this age are found in place about the mouth of Chin-oo- 

 kun-dl brook, south of Lawn Hill. They are here hard thin-bedded 

 arenaceous clays, grey in colour, and frequently with bedding planes 

 covered with shining micaceous particles. There are also hard, coarse, 

 sandy beds and clayey gravels, holding well rounded pebbles, associa- 

 ted with argillaceous lignite, and including trunks and branches of trees Lignite, 

 which are converted into coal-black lignite, though still retaining much 

 of their woody texture. The beds appear on the whole to be nearly 

 or quite horizontal. 



Opposite Lawn Hill, on the coast, igneous rocks referable to the Tufaceous 

 Tertiary appear, and account for the existence of this slight elevation. as 

 A fine-grained dull greyish-brown basaltic rock, with a thickness of 

 fifty feet or more, is the highest. It appears to be regularly bedded, 

 though this is probably owing to flow structure, and rests upon a great 

 mass of pale-coloured tufaceous agglomerate. This is a soft light 

 porous rock, still in much the same state as at the time of its formation. Drift lignite. 

 It contains occasional small fragments of lignite, and is thus pretty 

 certainly of later date than/the ordinary sedimentary beds just described. 



From this point to Tow Hill on the north coast of Graham Island, 

 between Eose Point and Masset, no deposits of greater age than those 

 of the glacial period are seen along the shore. The country continues 

 low, and on the beach many fragments of lignite may be picked up. 

 These have evidently been torn from parts of the bottom which are 

 subject to the occasional action of the sea during storms. Two varie- 

 ties of lignite are represented, one compact and evidently produced from 



