Note 80 — {145} CHAP. VI.

The exact locality here described does not appear to have been visited by any white man since 1771, but Sir John Richardson visited the Copper Mountains in 1821, and the following description by him will give some idea of their character:

"The Copper Mountains appear to form a range running S.E. and N.W. The great mass of rock in the mountains seems to consist of felspar in various conditions; sometimes in the form of felspar rock or claystone, sometimes coloured by hornblende, and approaching to greenstone, but most generally in the form of dark reddish-brown amygdaloid. The amygdaloidal masses, contained in the amygdaloid, are either entirely pistacite, or pistacite enclosing calc-spar. Scales of native copper are very generally disseminated through this rock, through a species of trap tuff which nearly resembled it, and also through a reddish sandstone on which it appears to rest. When the felspar assumed the appearance of a slaty claystone, which it did towards the base of the mountains on the banks of the river, we observed no copper in it. The rough and in general rounded and more elevated parts of the mountain, are composed of the amygdaloid; but between the eminences there occur many narrow and deep valleys, which are bounded by perpendicular mural precipices of greenstone. It is in these valleys, amongst the loose soil, that the Indians search for copper. Amongst the specimens we picked up in these valleys, were plates of native copper; masses of pistacite containing native copper; of trap rock with associated native copper, green malachite, copper glance or variegated copper ore and iron-shot copper green; and of greenish-grey prehnite in trap (the trap is felspar, deeply 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 consisting 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 fragments of a greenish-grey coloured rock, apparently sandstone, with disseminated variegated copper ore and copper glance; likewise rhomboidal fragments 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 examined 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 formation. The same rock having a thin slaty structure, and dipping to the northward, forms perpendicular walls to the river, whose bed lies 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 disappear. A few ranges of trap hills intersect this plain also, but they have much less elevation than those we passed higher up the stream.

"The river in its section of the plain, as far as Bloody Fall, presents alternately cliffs of reddish sandstone, and red-coloured slaty indurated clay or marl, and shelving white clay banks. At Bloody Fall, the stream cuts through a thick bed of dark, purplish-red felspar rock, similar to that observed at the Rocky Defile (page 527), and associated, as at that place, with a rock composed principally of light red felspar and quartz, but which is probably a species of red secondary granite. At the Bloody Fall, the felspar rock is covered to the depth of six or seven hundred feet with a bed of greyish white, and rather tenacious clay, which being deeply intersected with ravines, forms steep hills. Nearer the sea, the river is bounded by very steep cliffs of yellowish-white sand; and on the sea-coast, the above-mentioned red granite reappears on the west bank of the river, forming a rugged ridge about two hundred and fifty feet high" ("First Journey," pp. 528-530).

Sir John Franklin makes the following reference to the Copper Mountains, which he visited in July 1821:

"We rejoined our hunters at the foot of the Copper Mountains, and found they had killed three musk-oxen. This circumstance determined us on encamping to dry the meat, as there was wood at the spot. We availed ourselves of this delay to visit the Copper Mountains in search of specimens of the ore, agreeably to my instructions; and a party of twenty-one persons, consisting of the officers, some of the voyagers, and all the Indians, set off on that excursion. We travelled for nine hours over a considerable space of ground, but found only a few small pieces of native copper. The range we ascended was on the west side of the river, extending W.N.W. and E.S.E. The mountains varied in height from twelve to fifteen hundred feet. The uniformity of the mountains is interrupted by narrow valleys, traversed by small streams. The best specimens of metal we procured were among the stones in these valleys, and it was in such situations that our guides desired us to search most carefully. It would appear, that when the Indians see any sparry substance projecting above the surface, they dig there; but they have no other rule to direct them, and have never found the metal in its original repository. Our guides reported that they had found copper in large pieces in every part of this range, for two days' walk to the north-west, and that the Esquimaux come hither to search for it. The annual visits which the Copper Indians were accustomed to make to these mountains, when most of their weapons and utensils were made of copper, have been discontinued since they have been enabled to obtain a supply of ice-chisels and other instruments of iron by the establishment of trading posts near their hunting grounds. That none of those who accompanied us had visited them for many years was evident, from their ignorance of the spots most abundant in metal.

"The impracticability of navigating the river upwards from the sea, and the want of wood for forming an establishment, would prove insuperable objections to rendering the collection of copper at this part worthy of mercantile speculation" ("First Journey," p. 340-1).