MINES OF THE COASTAL RANGE. 2 G7 



The Kanbauk valley is filled with detrital. alluvial and possibly 

 lacustrine deposits in part, which in the centre are over 100 feet 

 in maximum depth below the present surface. The old valley 

 probably follows the general course of the modern one in its upper 

 reaches, and deposition was doubtless aided to a considerable extent 

 by the regional subsidence of the land, proved by observations 

 on the adjacent sea coast and by the fact that the rocky floor 

 of the central part of the valley is below the present level of the 

 sea. The present valley surface is approximately 1 .500 — 1 .800 feet 

 from east to west across at its wider parts. At the western edge 

 true talus deposits predominate but as these are followed out towards 

 the centre, the evidences of water action become more apparent 

 and river sorted alluvial wash intermingles with the others. Certain 

 sections of clayey material characterised by the occasional presence 

 of large rounded boulders are believed to represent silts laid down 

 in the comparatively stagnant waters of a lagoon formed by tem- 

 porary damming, by floating trees carrying masses of earth and 

 subsoil attached to their roots. This is a common enough pheno- 

 menon in Tavoyan floods at the present time. 



The thickest sections of these deposits are exhibited in a large 

 cut made by sluicing. Here the shallow talus deposit can be traced 

 down the hill side, and at the bottom, where the slope begins to 

 change, a great depth is attained at once. The material is exceed- 

 ingly stony, and boulders, often of great size, are interspersed 

 through the clayey mass, but further down, as the surface becomes 

 flatter, a distinct banding can be observed below the uppermost 

 layer. In the deepest part of the cut, the ground is blacker and 

 finer ; there are thin sandy bands and stones are fewer in number. 

 They are mainly decomposed argillites. The band is 20 feet thick, 

 with its bottom layer unexposed and passes up into a brown clay 

 at least 20 feet thick with great numbers of stones. This in its 

 turn passes up into reddish surface stuff of normal stony character. 

 While the larger stones are roughly rounded the smaller ones show 

 comparatively few signs of violent attrition. Large pieces of quartz 

 and whole sections of mineral-bearing veins occur in the clays. 



In the Elevator Cut further out towards the centre of the valley, 

 the prevalent material is a brown clay containing stones of all sizes 

 laid at all angles with little or no sign of stratification. The stones, 

 which are only roughly rounded, are slates and sandy quartzites 

 with vein quartz boulders and rare pieces of granite. Laterally 



