Golden lies in the Columbia River valley, and along the Canadian Pacific Railway. The river is bordered by flat lands and locally underlying them is considerable silty clay of flood-plain origin. Some of it is very plastic, sticky material, while at other times it is very sandy.

Results of laboratory tests on this clay is as follows. It is a highly calcareous, yellowish silty clay, which worked up with 32 per cent of water to a mass of only moderately plastic character, and hardly coherent enough to work in any but a soft-mud brick machine. The average tensile strength was 50 pounds per square inch and the average air shrinkage 4.5 per cent. The results obtained on firing are given below:

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Cone Fire Shrinkage (%) Absorption (%) Colour

010 Slightly swelled 42.6 Buff

05 Slightly swelled 42.6 Cream

03 Slightly swelled 45.2 Cream

1 Past vitrification

2 Fused

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This clay burns to an exceedingly porous body, and softens rapidly as its point of fusion is approached. It could be used for cheap majolica and common brick (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 25, pages 69, 70).