Cobaltiferous iron pyrites. 1. Elizabethtown, near Brockville a. Specimens of pyrites from a bed. ..A. S. Brown, Brockville. A great irregular mass in gneiss, probably lenticular, running with the stratification. It has been excavated to a breadth of twenty feet, but its length and full thickness have not been ascertained. Assays of the ore have yielded one half of one per cent. of cobalt. This, according to the newest methods of extraction of McFarlane, Roscher and Dahll, would yield a profitable result. The ore is on the property of Mr. Billings.-Laurentian. In the Eastern Townships a vast quantity of dolomite occurs. Stratigraphically, it is at the base of the Quebec group, where magnesian rocks of different descriptions are associated with the sulphurets of copper and other metals. The dolomite occurs in bands, which are from 100 to 300 feet thick. These run parallel to one another, on the opposite sides of synclinal and anticlinal forms, by which the bands are repeated in many places. The exposure in Brome, from which the specimen exhibited is taken, is on the east side of the Shipton and St. Armand anticlinal, and has been traced for many miles, running N. E. and S. W.-Quebec group, Lower Silurian. Magnesite or carbonate of magnesia. 1. Sutton, lot 12, range 7 a. Specimens of magnesite from a bed. Geological Survey. 2. Bolton, lot 17, range 9..... a. Specimen of magnesite from a bed. . Geological Survey. One of the rocks associated with or replacing the dolomites of the Quebec group, is magnesite. It is of more rare occurrence than the dolomite. In Sutton, it occurs on the east side of the Shipton and St. Armand anticlinal, where it is often slaty, from a mixture] of feldspar, with a mica colored green by chromium. The purest specimens contain eighty per cent. of carbonate of magnesia; with a portion of carbonate of iron. In Bolton, it occurs on the east side of the Melbourne and Potton anticlinal, where it forms an enormous bed, resembling a crystalline limestone. It contains, like the last, small portion of chromium and nickel, and consists of: Though the use of this mineral as an economic source of pure magnesia and magnesian salts on a large scale, may be worthy of consideration, its most important application is probably for the fabrication of a cement to resist the action of sea-water.-Quebec group, Lower Silurian. Petroleum or rock oil. 1. Enniskillen, lot 16, range 2... a. Gum or mineral tar from the surface. b. Crude petroleum from a well. c. Refined or burning oil. d. Lubricating or machinery oil. Canadian Oil Company, Hamilton. Natural springs of rock oil have long been known in several localities in Western Canada. Two of these are in the township of Enniskillen, in the southern part of which are two patches of an acre or more, covered with a layer of several inches of viscid mineral tar or asphaltum, which has resulted from the drying up of the petroleum of these springs. Wells sunk in their vicinity, to a depth of from forty to sixty feet, through the superficial clays, encounter a stratum of gravel, resting on the surface of the rock beneath, and often filled with oil; giving origin to what are called surface wells. On boring into the underlying soft fossiliferous shales and limestone, fissures are met with at various depths, from which rise abundant supplies of oil, often accompanied with inflammable gas, and with water, which is sometimes saline. These fissures, which also supply the surface wells are apparently connected with the oil-bearing strata of the Corniferous limestone; which is from 200 to 300 feet below the surface, in Enniskillen. Within an area of about four square miles in the first three ranges of this township, there were supposed to be, in August, 1861, about seventy wells, yielding more or less oil. Of these, forty were surface wells, that is, wells sunk from forty to sixty feet, through the drift clay and gravel, to the rock beneath. Some of these latter, which had yielded but little oil, gave abundant supplies by boring into the rock. The oil-bearing fissures or veins, in adjacent wells, were met with at depths varying from thirty-six to 100 and even 150 feet from the surface of the rock. One of the most abundant occurred at sixty feet. In some few cases, the oil from the borings rises above the surface of the ground, constituting what are called flowing wells. It is not easy to know the amount of oil which these wells are capable of supplying; since from the great difficulty in getting it to market, arising from the want of good roads, few of the wells are regularly and continuously pumped. Some of those which were bored in July and in August last, are stated upon good authority, to have yielded from 400 to 500 barrels of oil, in a week or two after having been opened; but the reservoirs provided, being filled with oil, the pumping of the wells was suspended. Two bored wells, belonging to Mr. Williams, which were the only ones continuously wrought in August last, are said to have yielded together, during some months, from twenty to twenty-five barrels (of forty gallons each,) daily. About six miles to the northward, on lots thirteen and fourteen, of ranges ten and eleven of the same township, sixteen wells had been sunk last August; of which twelve were surface wells, and had yielded large quantities of oil. Several of these had been wrought for nearly twelve months, and were supposed in that time to have yielded 1000 barrels. Other wells had recently been bored to a depth of nearly 200 feet, but yielded less oil than the surface wells. The wells of this region seem, thus far, to be less important than those in the southern part of the township. The oil from the deep or rock wells, is somewhat lighter and more fluid than that from the superficial wells, which is very dark colored and somewhat viscid. Great expectations have recently been excited by a flowing well, known as Shaw's, which was sunk to a depth of about 200 feet, and when first opened, a few weeks since, was sup. posed to yield, for a short time, 2000 barrels of oil in twenty-four hours; which flowed into a stream near by and was lost. This well is however said to have been since closed, so that the discharge is under control. Another recent well, near by, known as Bradley's, nearly as abundant. The experience in Pennsylvania has however shown that the supply from these flowing wells soon diminishes, and eventually fails. Adjacent borings sometimes appear to be connected with the same oil-yielding fissure, and to affect each other's supply; in some cases air passes down one shaft when the other is pumped. - Corniferous formation, Devonian. 2. Tilsonburgh................... . Watkins and Inglis, Hamilton. a. Crude petroleum from a well. Near the village of Tilsonburgh, in the township of Dereham, natural oil springs occur, and two wells have been bored in the Devonian limestone, which is here covered by about forty feet of clay and sand. One of these had been sunk thirty-six feet in the limestone, and had furnished, when seen in August, a few barrels of oil. In the townships of Zone, Mosa, and Orford, on the banks of the Thames, oil springs abound for a distance of about four miles. These, like the other natural springs mentioned above, furnish but small quantities of oil; several wells have however been sunk in the clay, and the rock beneath has been drilled. One of these, at a depth of seventy feet in the clay, had yielded about forty barrels of oil.-Corniferous formation, Devonian. 3. Bertie, lot 13, range 1 a. Specimen of limestone yielding petroleum. Geological Survey. In a quarry on the lot indicated, two oil-bearing beds, one of two and another of six inches, are seen; they are made up in great part of corals of the genera Heliophyllum and Favosites, in the pores of which the oil is lodged like honey in a comb. Other coral beds in the same series, however, are quite free from oil. The limestone beds above and below these are compact, and not at all impregnated with oil, which, even in the coral beds, is seen, when these are freshly broken, to be confined to the fossils, and not to be uniformly disseminated in the layer. When the rock is quarried, the oil flows out, and may be collected on the water in the bottom of the quarry. The facts observed with regard to the petroleum springs in Canada and the United States, would seem to show that they are always on the lines of anticlinals, along which the oil from its superior levity accumulates, and afterwards, by the pressure of water, is raised to the surface through the natural fissures which generally occur upon anticlinals. The oil-bearing limestone underlies an area of 7000 square miles in Western Canada. This limestone is of marine origin, and contains no organic remains but those of marine animals; so that we are led to conclude that these hydrocarbons have been derived from a peculiar decomposition of their tissues. These, as is well known, differ but little from those of the plants, which in many more recent formations have given rise to bitumens. We may suppose that many soft gelatinous animals, and perhaps even marine plants, whose traces have disappeared, may have contributed to form the petroleum of these coral beds.-Corniferous formation, Devonian. The shale of Collingwood, on lot 23, range 3, yields, when distilled, from three to four per cent. of tarry oil, which by the usual process of rectification affords oils fitted for illumination and lubrication. Works were erected by Messrs. Pollard & Macdonell, in October, 1859, consisting of twenty-four retorts, and capable of yielding about 250 gallons of oil daily, by the distillation of from twenty to thirty tons of shale. The available bed of shale is seven feet in thickness, and the material was delivered, broken for the retorts, at twenty cents the ton. The cost of the crude oil was said to be fourteen cents the gallon, and for a while the works were carried on successfully, a ready market being found for the oils; but the works were repeatedly destroyed by fire, and the oils from this source coming in competition with petroleum from the oil wells of Enniskillen, the enterprise is for the present abandoned.-Utica formation, Lower Silurian. Phosphate of lime (Apatite). 1. North Elmsley, lot 25, range 8....... a. Specimen of phosphate of lime from a bed. ..A. S. Brown, Brockville. This deposit has been traced across lots 24, 25, and 26, range 8 of North Elmsley, for a distance of about a mile, in a direction nearly S. W. It apparently forms an irregular bed in the Laurentian limestone. On lot 25, where it has been somewhat quarried, the breadth of the bed seems to be about ten feet, of which three feet are nearly pure crystalline apatite, with only a small admixture of black mica. The remainder is mingled with the limestone, the phosphate, however, in many parts largely predominating.-Laurentian. 2. South Burgess, lot 9, range 5........... a. Specimen of phosphate of lime from a bed. A. Cowan, Kingston. The deposit of phosphate of lime seen in North Elmsley, appears to be continued southwestwardly through Burgess. Indications of it occur on lot 2, range 7, and the quantity on lots 7, 8, 9, 10, range 5, still farther on, appears to be important.—Laurentian. Among the magnesian rocks at the base of the Quebec group, in that part of its distri bution where it is in a metamorphic state, soapstone or steatite occurs in great abundance. Beds of it, varying in thickness from one to sixteen feet, can be traced for long distances, usually not far removed from serpentine, dolomite, or magnesite; or apparently replacing one or other of these rocks. In general the soapstone is remarkably pure, but occasionally there are disseminated in it crystals of bitter spar or of actinolite. The specimens exhibited from Sutton and Bolton are from equivalent bands of twenty and thirty feet respectively, on the opposite sides of Sutton Mountain. In the latter locality the soapstone is interstratified with potstone and dolomite, and in some parts of the band, the three rocks are seen to interlock among one another in lenticular masses. These two bands of soapstone appear to be on the opposite sides of a general synclinal form; yet Sutton Mountain between them, has an anticlinal structure, with a height stated to be four thousand feet. This mountain occupies a breadth of ten miles at the province line, but gradually narrows, and completely dies down in a distance of thirty miles north-eastward. Its structure may be explained by stating that Sutton valley on the west, Sutton Mountain in the middle, and Potton valley on the cast, run upon three anticlinal axes, which converge to the northeastward, like the sticks of a fan; and while the rocks on the two outside anticlinals have been worn into valleys, those on the middle anticlinal have resisted denudation. Sutton Mountain is continued into Vermont, in Jay Mountain; which appears to stand on one of the main axes of the Green Mountain range.-Quebec group, Lower Silurian. Potstone (compact chlorite). 1. Bolton, lot 26, range 2..... a. Cut specimens of potstone. .. Geological Survey. A considerable portion of the rocks of the Quebec group, in their metamorphic condition, consists of chloritic slates; which appear to occupy a somewhat higher stratigraphical place than the more magnesian strata just mentioned, and usually to fill up the middle, and more elevated parts of the synclinal forms of the Quebec series, through the country. There occur also bands of pure compact chlorite or potstone interstratified with the more magnesian strata. Some of these are of considerable thickness, and the one in Bolton, from which the specimens are taken, has a width of about twenty feet.-Quebec group, Lower Silurian. Mica rock. 1. Shipton, lot 18, range 5.... a. Uncut specimens of mica rock. .Geological Survey. In nearly the same stratigraphical place as the potstone, there occurs, in some localities, a compact, hydrous mica, which so much resembles potstone as to have been mistaken for it; and very probably it possesses the same refractory properties. Where the specimens were obtained, a breadth of five feet is exposed; the full thickness of the band, however, is supposed to be much greater.-Quebec group, Lower Silurian. |