Part 1

Transcriber’s Note

When italics were used in the original book, the corresponding text has been surrounded by _underscores_.

Some corrections have been made to the printed text. These are listed in a second transcriber’s note at the end of the text.

CANADA

DEPARTMENT OF MINES

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BRANCH

HON. W. TEMPLEMAN, MINISTER; A. P. LOW, LL.D., DEPUTY MINISTER; R. W. BROCK, DIRECTOR.

PRELIMINARY REPORT

ON

GOWGANDA MINING DIVISION

DISTRICT OF NIPISSING

ONTARIO

BY

W. H. COLLINS

OTTAWA

PRINTED BY C. H. PARMELEE, PRINTER TO THE KING’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY

1909

No. 1075

13739-1

CONTENTS

PAGE.

I. Introduction.

1. Location and area 5

2. Statement of work 5

3. History of development 6

II. Summary and Conclusions 8

III. General Character of District 10

1. Means of access 10

2. Topography 11

3. Drainage 14

4. Flora and fauna 15

IV. General Geology 16

1. Outline of Geological history 16

2. Table of formations 18

3. Keewatin 18

General features 18

Obushkong area 18

Duncan Lake area 20

Pigeon lake area 21

Unfinished areas 22

4. Laurentian 23

General features 23

Relations to other formations 24

5. Huronian 25

General features 25

Basal conglomerate 26

Greywacke slate and quartzite 27

Upper conglomerate 27

Arkose 28

Structural features and disturbances 28

Relations to other formations 29

Origin and correlation 31

6. Post-Huronian eruptives 32

Quartz diabase 32

Character of intrusion and distribution relative to older systems 32

Macroscopic character 33

Microscopic character 34

Local description 36

Age 37

Olivine diabase 38

7. Pleistocene 38

V. Economic Geology 40

1. Silver 40

Distribution 40

Surface indications 40

Structure of veins 41

Composition of veins 41

Local description 42

Future possibilities 44

2. Copper 45

3. Iron ores 45

Hematite 45

Magnetite 46

4. Asbestos 46

Distribution 46

Origin 47

ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. Frontispiece—View at Foot of Duncan Lake 5

2. Diagram illustrating the structure of large hills 12

3. Diagram illustrating geological relationships 16

4. View looking north from middle of Duncan Lake, 550 ft. hill in distance 20

5. West Branch Montreal River, near Mosher Lake 22

6. Fifth portage on West Branch of Montreal River, showing Huronian slate 30

7. Inclined Huronian Beds, Duncan Lake 32

R. W. BROCK, Esq.,

Director Geological Survey Branch, Department of Mines.

SIR,—I beg to submit the following preliminary report upon work done in the Gowganda Mining Division during the field season of 1908.

I have the honour to be, sir, Your obedient servant,

W. H. COLLINS.

CHICAGO, March 8, 1909.

PRELIMINARY REPORT

ON

GOWGANDA MINING DIVISION

DISTRICT OF NIPISSING, ONTARIO

BY

W. H. COLLINS.

INTRODUCTION.

LOCATION AND AREA.

The portion of the Montreal River region with which the present report deals lies in the extreme western part of the District of Nipissing, in the neighbourhood of N. Lat. 47·45, and about 85 miles north of the town of Sudbury. It includes an area of 350 square miles, most of which lies between the two large branches of the Montreal river, which empties into Lake Timiskaming on the west side.

STATEMENT OF WORK.

The Algoma-Nipissing boundary line was run in 1897 by Alexander Niven, O.L.S. These surveys, with representations of some of the larger lakes, had been compiled by the Geological Survey of Canada on a scale of 16 miles to one inch;[1] and on a scale of eight miles by the Crown Lands Department of Ontario. With these as a guide and summary of the existing geographical knowledge it was decided to make a micrometer and prismatic compass survey of both branches.

During the past season a prismatic compass and micrometer survey was made of both branches of the Montreal river and all navigable waters adjoining them. This work was done by Messrs. T. Firth, J. R. Marshall and A. B. Moffatt. Most of the small ponds lying some distance from a canoe route were located by rapid chain and compass methods, and in a few instances west of Duncan lake by a compass triangulation from hilltops; the larger ones have been measured by pacing or chaining, the smaller ones sketched. Some of the more prominent hills were located by triangulation, and their heights ascertained by aneroid determinations. The water levels were obtained in the same way, but cannot as yet be referred to sea-level.

The geological work was performed by the writer, assisted by Mr. Firth. Besides a thorough examination of all the surveyed routes, a systematic examination of the intervening country was carried out as closely as the time and varied requirements of the area would permit. As this was the first season spent in the district and a continuation of the work is anticipated, the present results are offered as incomplete and subject to revision.

HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT.

Since the discovery of silver cobalt ores at Cobalt in 1903, exploration has shown the adjacent country to be locally enriched by mineral veins of the same character and genesis. At the close of 1907 an area 65 miles long in a north and south direction, and about 45 miles wide, extending from Lake Timiskaming and the Ontario-Quebec boundary westward, was known to include at least ten mineralized districts besides the principal one at Cobalt, of which the most recently found lie near the Montreal river. It has also become known gradually that these deposits are closely connected with the post-Huronian quartz diabase of the region. This diabase was known to extend for a very considerable distance farther west, leading to the inference that more discoveries were to be expected in that direction. The spring of 1908 saw interest centred upon the Montreal River finds, and early in the season active exploration had commenced. The Montreal river, up to that time, had not been regarded with special favour, the diabase being considered of no economic importance, but with the new conceptions gained by exploitation of the silver-cobalt district, this formation in the west began to attract attention. At the beginning of the field work, early in July, a considerable number of prospecting parties were on the ground, as far west as Duncan and Pigeon lakes. During July and August this movement, encouraged by the succession of mineral discoveries that were being made near Bloom and Everett lakes, increased steadily, in spite of the scarcity of available topographical and geological information dealing with the region.

Early in August discoveries of native silver were made almost simultaneously by Messrs. Mann and associates, and by Messrs. Crawford and Dobie on the west side of Gowganda lake, but were not made public until the first week in September when the claims were recorded at Elk Lake and specimens were exhibited. Twenty-four hours later the leading canoes of an inrushing body of prospectors had reached the new field, and within two weeks most of the promising country between Gowganda and Elkhorn lakes and northward had been staked, regardless of the mineral discoveries necessary to validate the claims. Since then numerous discoveries have been made, and the news of a new silver field, until recently confined to the Montreal River and Cobalt districts, has spread widely. As a consequence, a mid-winter rush is now in progress, and hundreds of prospectors, regardless of deep snow and severe cold, are entering the country. Much inadvisable staking will be done, no doubt, before spring, but the disappearance of the snow and reopening of river navigation will certainly be followed by an increased rush of prospectors.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.

The results obtained from the field work indicate that the Montreal River district does not differ essentially from the Cobalt or other neighbouring districts. The surface has the same rugged monotony of the pre-Cambrian peneplain, relieved somewhat by ridges of Huronian, which stand from 300 to 550 feet above the general level. The country is well watered, and offers exceptional facilities for canoe travel. Pleistocene deposits are thin, and nearly everywhere the rock formations are well exposed.

A basement complex underlies the entire region, either appearing at the surface or hidden beneath areas of Huronian sediments. This basement consists largely of Laurentian biotite and hornblende gneisses, with patches of vertically foliated, Keewatin schists caught up in the former; the intervening contacts forming indefinite zones, in which intrusive action is manifested. In this report, for convenience, this complex will be referred to as the Archæan. The Archæan possessed a peneplanated surface, not greatly different from the present one, which is well preserved where overlain by erosion remnants of Huronian sedimentary rocks, but which at other points has been further denuded. The Lower Huronian rocks are of clastic nature, consisting in ascending order, of conglomerate, greywacke, slate and quartzite, which pass conformably into an upper conglomerate; while a granite-like, arkose member is believed from its similarity to rocks of the same character in the Cobalt area, to be possibly of later, Middle Huronian age. They are remarkably well preserved, and show only slight indication of disturbance. A later intrusion of quartz diabase has developed a system of dikes in the Archæan and large tongue-shaped areas in the Huronian believed to represent sills of several hundred feet thickness, lying in the bedding planes of the Huronian sediments. The diabase magma has been notably differentiated, giving rise to forms ranging from gabbroid to syenitic in composition, and to younger aplite dikes. With the diabase is associated a group of veins containing an association of cobalt and silver ore identical with that of Cobalt and vicinity. The veins cut both diabase and aplite as well as the Huronian, and are therefore younger, but probably not much younger than the aplite, since it contains some of the minerals found in them. The distribution of the veins so far as known is confined to the larger diabase areas, the dikes and smaller bodies being undifferentiated and unmineralized; but the Huronian adjacent to the diabase also contains veins, somewhat more siliceous, yet evidently of the same age as the others. Alteration and impregnation of the country rock has taken place to an unknown, but, presumably, limited extent. Some of the veins are remarkably rich, and many of them occupy persistent, well defined fissures. The cause of these fissures is not yet known, but they appear to be too large and continuous to have resulted from contraction alone.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF DISTRICT.

MEANS OF ACCESS.

In 1908 the most used route to the Montreal River district started from Latchford, a station on the Timiskaming and Northern Ontario railway, 93 miles north of North Bay. From this village, situated on the Montreal river, a line of small steamers made daily trips up the river for 56 miles to Elk lake. This up-river terminus was then a rapidly growing village. In the spring of 1907 it consisted of a single shack and a cluster of prospectors’ tents; when seen in October, 1908, it had a population of over 200 people and all the conveniences of a village of that size, including a post office with regular mail service, a mining recorder’s office, lately removed from Latchford, general stores, hotels, etc.

From this point, which forms the headquarters and point of departure for Montreal River prospecting parties, a variety of routes lead westward. The Montreal river may be ascended to the Forks, where its two branches unite, but the stream is rapid, and, especially in high water, difficult of ascent, besides offering a very indirect route to the most frequented districts. The Bloom Lake route, a map of which accompanies the Report of the Bureau of Mines, Ontario, 1907, was, during 1908, very commonly used. This route, 9 miles in length and consisting of a chain of small lakes and portages, leads, from a point on the main river 11 miles above Elk Lake, directly west to the East branch. From the East branch a multiplicity of courses are open. Both East and West branches are easily navigable, being for the most part lake-like and sluggish, broken by occasional swift river-like stretches in which rapids occur. Good portages exist at all these places so that travel either up or down stream presents no difficulty. Numerous good canoe routes connect the two branches and Duncan and Pigeon lakes, and allow of easy access to the country in the west.

But since the writer left the field the great influx of prospectors has caused marked improvements in the connexion of the area, especially the Gowganda district, with outside railway points. A sleigh road has been opened from Charlton on the Timiskaming and Northern Ontario railway to Elk Lake, and thence about 32 miles south-westward to the east shore of Gowganda lake. It is understood that heavy grades make travel somewhat arduous, but the trip from Elk Lake is made easily in a day.

On February 4, a sleigh road about 65 miles long was completed between Gowganda and Sellwood, the present terminus of the northern extension from Sudbury of the Canadian Northern railway. A regular stage route now connects Sellwood, Phoenix, Burwash lake, Elkhorn lake, and Gowganda. However, neither the road to Elk Lake nor that to Sellwood are yet suitable for summer use, so that with the coming of spring, canoe travel must be again resorted to. It is also reported that preliminary surveys for the extension of the railway to Gowganda are in progress. Meanwhile a business centre is springing up on the east side of Gowganda lake. A sawmill was put in operation on February 3, but has since been stopped owing to its location within a government timber reservation. A town plot has been laid out at the foot of the lake and lots are now purchasable from the Ontario Department of Lands, Forests and Mines. Buildings are being erected as rapidly as the supply of material permits. A branch of the Royal Bank of Canada has been opened, and the Canadian Bank of Commerce and others propose to be on the ground within a short time. Postal connexions have been established via Sellwood, and as soon as possible a mining recorder’s office is to be opened. So swiftly are events transpiring that before the present report takes printed form, this paragraph will be in need of revision. However, only the developments of a permanent nature and of essential interest to prospective visitors to that region have been given. For the 1909 field season Gowganda will probably be the headquarters for prospecting parties in the neighbourhood of the East and West branches and Wapus creek.

TOPOGRAPHY.

Attention is given here rather to the details than the general aspect of the country. It exhibits the usual monotonous succession of low rocky hills and lake-containing depressions, the even horizon seen from the summit of any large hill, being only rarely notched by a prominence of unusual height. In the spring of 1908 virtually the whole area was forested, but during September the extreme dryness of the country and the unusually large number of camping parties combined to cause bush fires over much of the country between the East and West branches. The vegetable loam has been removed from extensive tracts leaving the rock formations exposed, but the charred tree trunks have fallen so as to cover the burnt districts with a ‘slash,’ which greatly impedes cross-country travel, so that what has been gained in one respect is more than counterbalanced in another. Especially is this the case in the country west of Gowganda and Obushkong lakes, and near the Forks.

The general surface may be characterized as of comparatively low-relief, the hills not often rising over 200 feet, but here and there over the country are conspicuous elevations, visible at long distances, which form useful landmarks and from whose summits comprehensive birds-eye impressions of the surrounding country are possible. Structurally they appear to be, in a few cases, resistant knobs of Keewatin, which project well above the general peneplain level, but more commonly they are tilted ridges of Huronian. A characteristic representative of the latter type forms a long ridge beginning a mile and a quarter north-east of Duncan lake and extending thence for several miles in a north-easterly direction. The south-east side of this ridge slopes gently at an angle corresponding with the dip of the beds, but the north-west face is an abrupt cliff dropping almost perpendicularly for about 400 feet to a flat sandy plain which extends westward and northward for several miles, beyond which are other monadnock-like knobs. The accompanying diagram is intended to represent the structure in vertical cross-section.

Another ridge of similar character, standing 550 feet above the level of Duncan lake, is visible from the ridge just described and from points on Duncan and Otto lakes, and adjoining country. Its position as indicated on the map is about four miles north of the large island in the middle of Duncan lake, a view of it from this point being shown in fig. 4. In this case the east face is perpendicular. A prominent hill of the same kind is visible from Obushkong lake, lying a short distance to the north-west of that body. Just west of Mosher lake as represented in fig. 5, two round hills of about equal size rise 300 feet above the water level. The more southerly of the two is of Keewatin, while that to the north is composed wholly of diabase, Huronian lying around the base of each. Bold, but less individualized elevations are common in the neighbourhood of Kenisheong lake, and other localities. All these hills are markedly rocky and free from soil.

Less conspicuous than these great masses are certain minor, but persistent features which are directly referable to geological conditions. Within Huronian areas there is a distinct tendency toward the development of a system of parallel ridges similar in structure and mode of origin to the hill at the north-east of Duncan lake. This feature is developed with special regularity in the southern part of the wedge between Duncan lake and the West branch, where a succession of north and south ridges alternate with strips of swampy ground. The western faces of the ridge are bare and cliff-like, while the eastern slopes are gentle, well soil-covered and forested.

The post-Huronian diabase is an equally potent topographical factor. Its surface is one of marked irregularity, but the peculiarly distinctive features occur at its contacts with the Huronian. These contacts appear to be zones of low erosive resistance, and are commonly coincident with ravines, walled on one side by diabase, on the other by Huronian. Small lakes may occur at intervals along them as, for example, between Firth lake and the West branch. This erosion feature is well shown by the configuration of Gowganda lake, where diabase bodies are unusually abundant; both of the long arms to the north-west lie in trough-like depressions marking the edges of the eastern diabase mass. The same tendency in an incipient condition is observable on the east side of the large peninsula where a series of three land-locked bays extend along the contact between the eastern diabase mass and the Huronian. Near the middle of Duncan lake, a diabase-Huronian contact which crosses the lake diagonally is marked by two deep bays, one extending to the north, the other southward. While this tendency is an evident one it is not to be understood as invariable; the large island in Duncan lake between the two above-mentioned bays is sufficient to indicate that contacts may lie in high ground, yet even here there are minor features indicating the contact zone to be structurally weak.

Another less explicable topographic peculiarity becomes apparent only upon scrutiny of the drainage system. A brief consideration of the map shows that both East and West branches follow peculiar zig-zag courses running north for a short distance, then turning abruptly east, this feature recurring repeatedly. In some instances the east-west portion of both branches lies in the same line. In the case of Zigzag lake and adjacent portions of the West branch this feature is repeated with an almost conventional regularity, which precludes attributing it to chance causes. Many of the smaller lakes—Foot lake, for instance—exhibit the same character on a small scale. This abnormality has been commented upon by investigators in the country to the east, the courses there, however, being N.E.-S.W. and N.W.-S.E. Regional faulting is suggested in explanation. The canyon-like east and west walls of Zigzag lake suggest such conditions, but a discussion of the matter must be deferred until further data can be collected.

DRAINAGE.

All the drainage water escapes by way of the Montreal river, whose two chief tributaries are the East and West branches, the latter being considerably the larger. The East branch is without feeders of important size, but the West branch receives a large creek, the Wapus, from the south, and a considerable volume of water enters through Duncan lake.