No. I.] 



GEOGNOSTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



529 



masses of pistacite containing native copper ; of trap rock with associated na- 

 tive copper, green malachite, copper glance or variegated copper ore and iron- 

 shot copper green, of greenish-grey prehnite in trap, (the trap is felspar, deep- 

 ly coloured with hornblende,) with disseminated native copper : the copper, 

 in some specimens, was crystallized in rhomboidal dodecahedrons. We 

 also found some large tabular fragments, evidently portions of a vein con- 

 sisting of prehnite, associated with calcareous spar, and native copper. The 

 Indians dig wherever they observe the prehnite lying on the soil, experience 

 having taught them that the largest pieces of copper are found associated with 

 it. We did not observe the vein in its original repository, nor does it appear 

 that the Indians have found it, but judging from the specimens just mentioned, 

 it most probably traverses felspathose trap. We also picked up some frag- 

 ments of a greenish-grey coloured rock, apparently sandstone, with dissemi- 

 nated variegated copper ore and copper glance ; likewise rhomboidal frag- 

 ments of white calcareous spar, and some rock crystals. The Indians report 

 that they have found copper in every part of this range, which they have exa- 

 mined for thirty or forty miles to the N.W., and that the Esquimaux come hither 

 to search for that metal. We afterwards found some ice chisels in possession 

 of the latter people twelve or fourteen inches long, and half an inch in diameter, 

 formed of pure copper. 



To the northward of the Copper Mountains, at the distance of ten miles, in 

 a direct line, a similar range of trap hills occurs, having, however, less altitude. 

 The intermediate country is uneven, but not hilly, and consists of a deep sandy 

 soil, which, when cut through by the rivulets, discloses extensive beds of light- 

 brownish red sandstone, which appears to belong to the new red sandstone for- 

 mation. The same rock having a thin slaty structure, and dipping to the north- 

 ward, forms perpendicular walls to the river, whose beds lie a hundred and 

 fifty feet below the level of the plain. The eminences in the plain are well 

 clothed with grass, and free from the large loose stones so common on the 

 Barren Grounds, but the ridges of trap are nearly destitute of vegetation. 



Beyond the last-mentioned trap range, which is about twenty miles from 

 the sea, the country becomes still more level, the same kind of sandstone 

 continuing as a subsoil. The plains nourish only a coarse short grass, and 

 the trees which had latterly dwindled to small clumps, growing only on low 

 points on the edge of the river under shelter of the high bank, entirely disap- 



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