The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-11-02
Extralateral Rights-Proof OF
Apex.


fascinating story published by G. P,
Putnams Sons) of an expedition to
Hearne's Coppermine river which
flows into the Arctic Ocean, says the
Mining and Engineering Journal. He
was accompanied by August Sandberg,
geologist for Phelps, Dodge & Co., and
by Lieut.. l.. d. Douglas, r. N, the
book is beautifully printed and is il
Illustrated by an uncommonly fine col
lection of photographs, which give
better idea of this barren northland
than anything else we have ever seen.
We fear they are flattering, for they
do not show such an inhospitable
country as we imagined. Moreover,
Mr.. Douglas and his companions ap-
pear to have had an agreeable time
of it, although they had plenty OF
hardships. We fancy that in writing
of them in after time, Mr.. Douglas
took a genial view of them. Anyway,
his book is superior in human interest
and in many other things to most
books of travel The following intro
duction by DIR. James Douglas will be
of interest to everybody:
Explore Copper River.
MY cousin, George Mellis Douglas
the leader of the expedition described
in this narrative, is an engineer and
has had wide experience of small craft
After years of work in the arid south
west, he was naturally seized with an
uncomfortable thirst for water, and
one day told me of his longing to ex-
plore some of the rivers flowing into
took to "grubstake" him if he would
report on the copper bearing rocks OF
Hearne's Coppermine river. He ac-
cepted the challenge. And this book
/ is one of the results. 1t contains
narrative of travel in arctic Canada by
three youths without native guides
who brough back scientific informa
ton of great interest and Importance
Hearnes Coppermine river, flowing
into the Arctic ocean in Latitude g.
40 n, and Longitude 1852 w, was
chosen as Offering an exceptionally in
teresting field for exploration, partly
because the results might have fina
commercial value.
Indians Tell of Copper.
! .,I,, l,;e ;n+rod, ctorv cha nter tho an
thor describes how rumors and proofs
of great copper deposits among the
mountains in the far north prompted
the earlier explorations of that inhos-
Ipitable land. The Indian tales of the
remote copper mines were as far from
accurate as in many mining report
! in the prospectus of a modern pro-
moter. Instead of mountain of cop
per Hearne found one lump of metal
| which he picked up among tumble
| of rocks9 Copper may once have
been more prodigally exposed but for
centuries the groupings had been
searched for float metal by the Eski-
mos and by the Coppermine River
Indians, who used it as an article OF
barter over the whole northwest. 1t
was carried eastward by them to the
Hudson Bay and westward to the Pac-
life. The Eskimos are said still to
prefer it for certain uses to iron.
DIR. Sandberg examined and map
ped out only the section of the Cop
per Range Immediately west of the
Coppermine river but the party fol-
lowed the same traps to the Dismal
lake and found them strewn on the
shores of Great Bear lake $50 miles
west of the Coppermine river. Simp-
son. Hanbury and others picked UP
metallic copper on the beach of the
islands in Bathurst Inlet. Thus these
rocks, with a general northeast and
southwest strike, have been traced fol
some 300 miles, and if the same rocks
really appear in Victoria land, where
Stefanson describes the Eskimos as
gathering copper, their cross section
must be vastly greater than the cor
responding series on Lake Superior
The total area, therefore, within which
copper ore may possibly be found
covers nearly 10000 square miles.
Ores of Profitable Grade.
Whether profitable ore occurs any
where in this district can be deter
mined only by a thorough survey, fol
lowed, should favorable indications b.
found, by exploratory development OF
an extensive scale. Our three explor
ers confirmed Sir John Richardson
diagnosis of the identity Of these cop
per- bearing rocks with the melaphyre
and conglomerates of the Keweenav
series of Lake Superior. This wa
conclusively proved by Graton's petro
: logical examination of the hundred
samples of rocks brought out by ou
explorers. On analysis a large pro
portion of these rock samples con
tained traces of metallic copper-tw'
of them were ores of profitable grade
; What they did for the first time wa
. to trace and map the succession o
| beds that compose this interesting
= possibly commercially important
: group of rocks. In this work the,
even preceded the Canadian geological