That the region, however, has been submerged in later times is attested surface, rather than where igneous basalt flows on the slopes may
by the presence of smaller patches of paleozoic sediments resting on the have become hard tempered when deposited or thrust out in surrounding
flattened surface of the older rocks. waters. It may be that there they found their “line of least resistance.”
As the valuable metallic deposits of this Northern area belong to It may also be that the sediments overlaid as an elastic spongy mass in
the class of ores deposited from solutions that derived their dissolved places forcing the mineral laden waters into fissures, fractures and
substances from cooling igneous material such as intruded batholiths of breaks.
granite, etc., it is safe to assume that the granites and the porphyries After a long period when climatic conditions changed from tropical
were the gold bearers, although they do not all penetrate to the surface. to intense cold a Continental ice field was formed stretching from a point
Leaving the cooling batholithic intrusive, the magmatic solutions south of the Great Lakes to the North Pole and beyond. Later, warmer
which carried the metals were forced upward under great pressure, and climatic conditions prevailing, portions of the ice field moved southward
penetrating through fissures and other planes of weakness in the vol- in what was known as the glacial age. This planed off a part of the
canics and sediments were deposited in these older rocks. Such deposits sediments and also the basalts where they were not covered or were
were formed probably several thousands of feet below the land surface thinly covered by sediments, conglomerates, etc., and the deposition and
existing at the time, but erosion has cut down so deeply that this deeper mineralization were in places left exposed on the present surface. The
zone to-day lies exposed on the present land surface ready to yield up amount of erosion by the pleistocene ice sheet was very small, and the
its deposits to careful and intelligent prospecting. Where previous whole continental ice field in bulk did not move southward. The glacial
intrusions caused shearing and twisting movements these shear zones moraine moved little in places, as is particularly evident at the Clarke
were exceptionally favourable for the deposition and retention of valuable property on the Harricanaw River in Northern Quebec, where square
gold deposits. boulders of quartz with visible gold undoubtedly came from the big
It will be appreciated that, in the cooling, the temperature would surface gold vein ‘two lumdred feetitoitheinorthward.
fall rapidly as the distance from the parent super-heated body increased, We can draw a further deduction as to the prospecting value of
and that at a certain temperature, i.e., at a certain distance from the these main Continental heights of land from the fact that precious metals
intrusive batholithic body, precipitation would occur and a zone would dividend payers have so far not been found in Northern Ontario or
be created in which this mineralization could proceed. It would follow Northern Quebec more than fifty to sixty miles distant from these main
that this zone of mineralization would in general lie more or less parallel Continental heights of land.
to the surface of the present igneous body, and would be a greater distance Whatever opinions may be held as to the existence of a definite
from a large batholithic intrusion of many miles in length than from a relation between the occurrence of precious metals mineralization and
smaller one of a few miles or less in length. these Continental heights of land, such as the Rocky Mountains from
The adjacent area round the small granitic intrusion may then be Mexico through Colorado, Montana and British Columbia to the Klon-
more favourable for the finding of surface enrichments. In the case of dike, and also this easterly height of land running from Labrador across
large intrusions such as the granitic masses some distance south of the north country into the Rockies separating the waters of the Arctic
Rouyn the rocks must have been so intensely heated that any mineral from the Gulf of Mexico, it appears, as has been previously pointed out,
bearing solution given off by them would probably be driven too great a that the most important discoveries have been made at points close to
distance to be correlated with the intrusion. its present existing position.
Probably conditions were made much more favourable for the As favourable prospecting conditions up North are found along the
intrusion and deposition of these super-heated mineralized waters in exposures on these heights of land, prospectors when they weigh the matter
economic volume through and along the horizon of the main volcanic fully, are likely to explore it thoroughly. These sections are now well
range where vents and fissures from great depth led up closer to the served by the Canadian National Railways.
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