The Canoe River map area is predominantly underlain by a sequence of folded Hadrynian metasedimentary strata, belonging to the Windermere Supergroup (Miette, Horsethief Creek and Kaza groups) and their basement gneisses.

Lithologies of the lower Kaza Group include pelitic schist (locally kyanite-sillimanite-staurolite-garnet-biotite and/or muscovite-bearing), amphibolite, marble, calc-silicate, diamicite, conglomerate and quartzite. Quartzofeldspathic psammite and grit, pelitic schist, amphibolite and graphitic phyllite comprise lithologies of the Upper Clastic division of the Horsethief Creek Group.

Strata of the lower Kaza and Horsethief Creek groups in the Canoe River area are locally sufficiently pelitic to produce abundant garnet and aluminosilicate minerals when subjected to high-grade regional metamorphism (Open File 1988-26).

In the southeastern Cariboo Mountains, approximately 30 kilo- metres southwest of Valemount, pelitic schists locally contain up to 20 per cent kyanite, up to 15 per cent fibrolitic sillimanite and up to 25 per cent garnet (Pell, 1984). Kyanite grains are commonly in excess of 2 centimetres in length. These extremely aluminous pelitic strata are largely confined between a carbonate marker horizon in the lower Kaza Group and the Middle Marble division of the underlying Horsethief Creek Group. Less commonly, aluminous pelitic horizons are present in the Horsethief Creek Group Semipelite-Amphibolite division, immediately underlying the Middle Marble Division. Pelitic schists in this region also frequently contain quartz-kyanite-rich segregation lenses.