monly occurring in large ophitic crystals distinctly visible to the naked eye even without close inspection. As only a limited amount of the rock is exposed, there is yet much to be learned as to the relative quantities of felspar and hornblende; but the nature of the formation is evident from what is already visible.

The ore bodies, or veins as they are called, are a series of parallel dikes of felsite extending across the island with a strike of north 30 degrees east. Descriptions of these can be found in the report for 1897. The main vein reveals an interesting feature which is worthy of note. The main portion consists of light colored felsite, containing a considerable percentage of quartz, and heavily charged with iron pyrites, the whole possessing a schistose structure. Where it is exposed on the north shore it shows a width of 16 feet, which is probably the average width of the dike all over. Near the centre of this dike, running parallel with it, there occurs a small dike about two feet wide of harder and darker colored felsite, which is a later eruption, as is evident from the fact of its being enclosed in the large dike, and not being altered or silicified like the latter. This forms the foot wall of the shaft.

Extent of the Work ings.

A 7 by 12-foot shaft has been sunk on the dike or main vein to a depth of 120 feet, At dipping 75 to 80 degrees west. a depth of 62 feet a level has been established, with a five by sevenfoot drift south on the vein for a distance of 42 feet, and one north 38 feet, of the same cross-section. Twenty feet from the shaft in the south drift a cross-cut has been driven west 14 feet, exposing from 11 to 13 feet of vein matter. A neat collar has been constructed to a depth of 20 feet, extending four feet above the surface. A manway with ladders and platforms suitably arranged has been cased off from the hoisting compartment to within 30 feet of the bottom. three-pole skidway for bucket extends to within 20 feet of the bottom, with trap door at the first level. A substantially constructed shaft house, framed of 12 inches square timber, has been built.

A

The hoisting machinery consists of a 15 horse-power duplex hoist, with 16-inch drum, -inch steel wire cable, iron kibble, and a 25

horse-power locomotive style boiler. Forty feet of tramway extends from the shaft house to the dump, with one Woodside Bros. iron dump car. No provision is made for pumping water, as the shaft is quite dry even at the bottom.

At a distance of 250 feet north of No. 1 shaft, on the same vein, a test pit was being sunk at the time of my second visit; it had reached a depth of 10 feet.

On the east side of the island, near the water level, a tunnel has been driven west 66 feet, cutting No. 1 vein and a branch of No. 2. These are both felsite bodies.

The following buildings have been erected: Engine house, blacksmith shop, shaft house, sleeping camp, boarding camp and office.

A steamboat dock, with a frontage of 30 feet, has been built on the east side of the island. The steamer Ethel, belonging to the mine, runs between there and Rat Portage.

Cordwood is supplied from a neigboring island, 172S, the property of the company. The company are talking about erecting a 40-stamp mill in 1899.

On September 20, the date of InspectorDeKalb's visit, an Inspector's Book was left, with instructions, etc., which will be found in Mr. DeKalb's report.

Activity on

takie.

Locations on Lake Minnietakie. During the past year the country around lake Minnietakie has been the scene of a fair amount of prospecting activity. Lake Minnie- Quite a number of locations have been surveyed, and on a few of these test shafts have been sunk, open cuts. made, and other surface exploitation work done at various places on the lake and in the vicinity. A few days, beginning June 15, were spent in examination of some of these locations.

Access to lake Minnietakie is obtained by means of a good wagon road nine miles in Entry into length from Dinorwic on the Canathe Region. dian Pacific Railway to Sandy lake, a voyage of six miles by canoe across the latter and a 15-chain portage from there to lake Minnietakie, the entry into which is at the southern extremity of a long narrow bay, extending river-like in a southwesterly direction from the main body for a distance of

about 20 miles. An effort is being made to have communication improved by continuing the road around the eastern side of Sandy lake, where it is claimed a first class summer road only 20 miles in length can be constructed directly to lake Minnietakie, thereby avoiding the necessity of transhipping at Sandy lake. A Government road 27 miles in length has been cut from Wabigoon to lake Minnietakie, meeting it at a point a few miles north of the Sandy lake portage.

The formation of the country consists of a wide belt of green schists and trap, with Formation of quartz and felspar porphyries, the Country. altered felsite, gabbro, etc., scattered throughout, and Laurentian granite on the north and the south. The strike of the formation is northeast and southwest. The northern boundary, or the contact with the granite, occurs at some distance north of lake Minnietakie, and the southern contact crosses the southern part of the lake.

Harvey Syndicate.

Mr. E. E. Harvey of Winnipeg, representing capital from that place, has been Burnt Island Sinking on several properties dur

location.

summer.

ing last winter and the following Burnt island, where work was in progress at the time of my visit, was the first place examined. It is situated near the northwestern shore of the lake, about 40 miles from the railroad, and has an area of a few hundred acres. The eastern portion has been surveyed into a mining location. The island is fairly well wooded for mining purposes, although a portion of it has been burnt over. The formation consists of hornblende schist and quartz and felspar porphyry. The eastern part of the location is composed of an eruptive mass of the latter. A band of hornblende schist over 100 feet in width crosses the location with a strike of northeast through the porphyry. On the contacts between these rocks the veins occur. Two have been exposed so far. The main vein is on the easterly contact and can be traced almost across the island, a distance of about a quarter of a mile. It outcrops on elevated ground all along, and stripping consists for the most part in merely removing a few trees and a little moss. The other contacts are on lower

ground, covered with several feet of earth, except at the shores where the rock is exposed. The main vein is exposed distinctly on the north shore, with a width of three or four feet. It has been stripped at several places along its strike, maintaining about the same width. The vein matter consists of quartz and porphyry mixed with a little green schist. About 200 feet from the shore, and 60 or 70 feet above the water level, a 7 by 9 foot shaft has been sunk on the vein to a depth of 48 feet, and is being continued. It is the intention to sink 60 feet and cross-cut east, as the east wall of the vein is not exposed in the shaft. There is an average of about three feet of quartz, with at least 4 feet at the bottom, mixed slightly with echist. The quartz is white, semi-translucent, containing plenty of iron and copper pyrites and galena. A few nice specimens containing visible gold from the shaft were shown me. The force consists of three miners and a foreman, A. Johnson. A log boarding camp comprises the building accommodation.

Location BJ12.

On a parallel arm of the lake, and at a distance of 10 or 15 miles south, is another location BJ12, belonging to the same parties, where a shaft had been sunk the previous summer, and work suspended since. The vein is a contact between fine grained, massive greenstone and eruptive granite, the latter extending along in a bluff about 40 feet in height and from 50 to 100 feet back from the water. The vein dips northwest into the bluff, about half way up the face of the same. The shaft, which is vertical and was started on the hanging wall side, is said to be 35 feet in depth, but is now full of water. It is said to have been sunk to the foot wall, cutting through 26 feet of quartz. The crosssection is 6 by 8 feet, and a collar extends for 18 feet down. The vein on the surface is exposed for only a few feet at the shaft, showing a width of five or six feet. A few hundred feet south another exposure for a distance of 30 or 40 feet occurs, where it is entirely in the granite, and has a width of from two to three feet. The quartz is similar to that of the previous property, with small remnants of greenstone scattered all through. Galena is quite plentiful, also copper and iron pyrites.

Harvey's first camp, a few miles south of Burnt island, was the first place reached. Two locations, BJ17 and 20, had been surveyed, and I was informed a couple of small test pits had been sunk, but I did not visit them.

John Sykes Syndicate.

My trip to the Minnietakie country was made in company with Messrs. Fulton B. Jewell and G. H. Fanning, who with Joe Greenwood were prospecting and testing properties during the past year in this district for the John Sykes syndicate of Glen Williams, Ontario. They had surveyed a number of locations on different parts of the lake, and had done considerable prospecting work on them. Most of these were visited and examined with more or less minute.

ness.

Locations

107.

The first were locations SV106 and 107, aggregating a little over 80 acres, on Neepawa island. The formation is horn-, SV106 and blende schist and trap, with eruptive granite in the interior. The ore body is a porphyry dike three or four feet wide and traceable for at least a quarter of a mile, following the strike of the schist, which is northeast, and dipping nearly 90 degrees west. The island is pretty well timbered and moss-covered, rendering prospecting difficult. In fact all the country around this part is fairly well supplied with timber. An examination of the shore at another part of the island showed the rock to be altered felsite.

Location SV104, containing nearly 60 acres, and situated on a point about one mile south of Neepawa island, at the outlet of Twin lake,

Location

was next examined. The formation SV104. is similar to the preceding, being hornblende schist and trap, with a strike nearly east and west. Following a foot trail for a distance of a few hundred feet from the shore we came to the vein, which appeared to be a contact from one and a-half to three feet in width and traceable for 70 or 80 feet, curving around the base of a small hummock consisting of porphyry, and extending into the schist, across the strike of same. A few shots had been put in and a few square yards of stripping done. The vein appeared to lie pretty flat. It consisted of white quartz with little or no concentrates.

Location

A few miles further up Twin lake we came to SV105, on which the greatest amount of work had been done. The formaSV105. tion is hornblende schist, with a strike of north 20 degrees east. An ore body consisting of a mixture of quartz, schist and felsite, the whole possessing a schistose structure, and much altered on the surface, traverses the location with the strike of the schist. A seven by nine foot shaft was sunk on the hanging wall of the vein the previous winter, and although operations have been suspended for a while they will be resumed shortly. At the bottom a cross-cut has been driven 15 feet east. As the vein dips west the hanging wall is not exposed, but at least 16 feet of vein matter has been cross-cut, consisting of schist and quartz, about 25 per cent. being the latter, occurring in small lenticular masses and stringers. On the surface the vein has been stripped across in a couple of places about 150 yards south of the shaft. A couple of small felsite dikes full of quartz stringers were exposed, with considerable decomposed schist on both sides. A log cabin and a blacksmith shop have been built. I hear that a 10-stamp mill was being taken in here in January, 1899.

Location SV103.

Ruby Island, or location SV103, was next visited, and proved to be an interesting property geologically. The island is roughly dumb-bell shaped, a low lying isthmus with a beautiful sand beach -a number of sand beaches occur at different points on the lake--on each side connects the two main portions, only one of which, containing 30 or 40 acres, was examined. It was thickly timbered and the rock deeply moss covered, but by following the shore around where the rock was exposed a fair idea of the nature of the formation could be obtained. An examination showed that the latter consisted of a series of parallel bands of different kinds of rock, conforming with the general strike of the country. The principal of these is a band of hard, light-colored schistose felsite, containing small stringers of quartz. This was about 70 feet in width, and crossed the main portion of the island. On each side of this was a siliceous green schist varying from coarse to fine grained, and next to this a coarse grained amphibolite, which

was exposed only on the west side. A small dike of coarse grained gabbro about eight inches in width in the green schist led to an examination of the main shore about two miles distant, where the formation proved to be gabbro.

Location SV107.

Another is'and property, SV107, was visited on the return trip. A dike of porphyry over 100 feet in width, with hornblende schist on each side, crosses the island. In some places the porphyry is full of quartz stringers, usually a few inches in width, and running without any regularity or persistency. Iron pyrites is plentiful, and it is said that copper pyrites and galena also have been found. Two or three shots have been put in.

The last places examined were SV109 and 110, aggregating 80 acres, on the long narrow peninsula extending northeast in the southwestern part of the lake. and 110. The country rock is green schist

Locations SV109

and trap. A felsite dike 12 to 20 feet in width, containing small stringers of quartz, crosses both locations. A shot has been put in at one place. On SV110 a small parallel dike from one to three feet in width traverses the location south of the larger one. A little stripping and blasting work has been done on it. At one point a quartz vein 12 inches wide is exposed on one wall of the dike, where a shot had been put in and some stripping done.

One or two other parties were working at different places on the lake, but I did not think it necessary to visit any more properties during this trip, as nothing more than prospecting work was being done.

strumental in securing this station, has built a hotel there, with first-class accommodation, and this is now the most convenient point of entry to the mining country to the south. A wagon road nine miles in length leads to the New Klondike. This was originally cut out by Walker and Brown and others who are principally interested there, and the Government has widened and improved it for a distance of six miles. The country being comparatively level and the timber light, very fair roads can be cut at no great expense. The New Klondike is also reached from Wabigoon or Dinorwic by a steamer which runs up Little Wabigoon river to within three miles of the mines, and a road has been cut out in order to establish connection with the railway by this route. Other roads from place to place have been cut out where necessary by those operating in this section. Thomas Hogan, who has done most of the development work here by contract, has been very energetic in road cutting, having spent, he informed me, $500 in this work.

Location HW416.

Watson's Mine.

What is apparently one of the best properties in the New Klondike is HW416, a location of 40 acres, owned by the Hon. Robert Watson, Minister of Public Works for Manitoba, and John M. Monroe, of Dinorwic. Mention was made of this property in last year's report. On no prop. erty in this part of Ontario are finer surface showings evident. Whether the results of development work will fulfil the expectations of the owners is an interesting question to all who are operating in the vicinity. The formation is felsite and felspar porphyry. Fire has run over a considerable part of the location, which had been covered with a dense growth of small evergreens; and about 6 acres have been cleared. Large masses of dark blue quartz outcrop irregularly on the higher ground where the rock is exposed, suggesting the likelihood of immense orebodies underneath. As the greater part of the location is either muskeggy or the rock soil covered, the work of stripping is expensive, necessitating the removal of considerable earth, loose rock, moss and trees, and although a great deal of this work has been

done, with very favorable results, there is still much to be learned from what is yet hidden under the surface covering. The largest outcropping of quartz is about 150 feet in length, with a jog of 20 feet near the centre. It ranges in width from one to 22 feet, averaging 10 or 15 feet. Being apparently more resistant to glacial action than the country rock, it stands out to a height of several feet. A trench 170 feet long, two to three feet wide and three to five feet deep, has been made along the south wall of the ore body, and near the south end an open cross-cut five to eight feet deep and 75 feet long has been made, cutting through 22 feet of quartz.

Another body of quartz three feet wide is cut by the cross-cut at a distance of fifty feet from the large body. Other outcrops occur to the south, on the strike of the large vein. but their connection with the latter has not yet been determined. Farther west bodies of quartz several feet in width have been uncovered for a short distance in three or four places. A costean six or seven feet deep and about 17 feet long has been made on a vein crossing from HW477 on the southern part of the location. The principal vein is traceable with a continuous outcropping for about 150 yards, varying in width from one to seven feet, and averaging about three feet. It has a strike of northeast and a dip of about 80 degrees east. About 250 feet of the vein has been stripped. At the northeast end a junction occurs with a large vein six or seven feet wide which comes in from the south, and is traceable for seventy or eighty feet with stripping for most of the distance. A six by eight foot shaft, dipping about 80 degrees east, has been sunk on the vein to a depth of 90 feet, and is being continued. The work is done by Thomas Hogan, who has contracted to sink 150 feet with 200 feet of drifting at the 100 foot level. The vein is not so strong in the shaft as on the surface, the variation in width being considerable. There is a comparatively large quantity of copper pyrites and zincblende present, along with the usual per cent. of iron pyrites and a little galena. The hoisting plant consists of a 10 h.p. hoister, a 9 h.p. upright boiler and 750 lb. ore buckets,

sliding on a skidway extending to the bottom of the shaft. A head frame 22 feet in height has been constructed. A suitable ladderway has been provided to within 30 feet of the bottom, the ladders below this being movable. The force consists of seven miners, working in day and night shifts. There are on the property a boarding camp, a hoisting engine house and a stable.

Northwestern Ontario Exploration Co.

Location HW 418.

A number of locations had been taken up by Walker and Brown, the first prospectors in the New Klondike. An offer was made of any one of their locations to whoever would sink a 250 foot shaft upon it. This offer was taken by the Northwestern Ontario Exploration Company, with head office in London, England. Managing director of the company, J. Scott Smith, and superintendent of mines, S. F. Franco. HW418 was first chosen. What appeared to be the outcrop of an immense body of quartz 40 or 50 feet in width, forming a small hill, proved upon sinking a 12 foot test pit to be nothing more than the upper side of a flat lying vein two or three feet in thickness. This however dipped at an angle of 20 degrees into a bluff 70 or 80 feet away, and a shaft was sunk there to a depth of 78 feet, 34 feet vertically in the hanging wall, cutting the vein, and 44 feet on the incline. This shaft, I was informed, revealed three feet of pure quartz and about 12 feet of a mixture of quartz and greenstone. But as values were not satisfactory it was abandoned entirely, after being properly fenced to prevent accident.

Location HW419.

The same company are now sinking on HW419, an adjoining location of 40 acres. Work was commenced under the previous agreement, but an absolute title to the property has since been acquired. A shaft seven by nine feet inside the timbers has been sunk to a depth of 142 feet, with sinking continued. It is sunk on a very small but extremely rich vein, from four to six inches in width on the surface and said to be traceable for 1000 feet. It has a strike of slightly north of west, and a dip of nearly 90 degrees west. The vein at a short distance down pinched out altogether,