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f. Section of car wheel showing grain of metal and chill.

g. Cast iron chain, swivel and chain.

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h. Cast iron chain of an inch in diameter, broken with a weight of 9,012 pounds.

i. Specimens of light castings.

j. Rings (17" diameter) cut from cast iron cylinders, one of them twisted to show the iron under tortion, and one straightened to show the flexibility of the iron.

k. Section of cast iron bar (1′′ square) broken by a weight of 1,115 pounds when suspended from centres three feet apart.

1. Tilted tool and spring steel, made by Siemens Martin process.

m. Section of steel axle showing grain of metal.

A most important vein of iron ore occurs in the Middle or Upper Silurian slates and quartzites of Londonderry, on the southern slope of the Cobequid Hills. It has an approximately east and west course, and has been traced for a distance of more than twelve miles. The largest proportion of the ore, so far as known, consists of limonite, which is generally earthy, but sometimes occurs in lustrous stalactitic and mammillary forms. It has evidently been derived from the alteration of spathic ore and ankerite, both of which are in many places found in an unaltered condition. Ochreous red hematite, specular iron ore, and small quantities of magnetite also constitute portions of the vein. The following analyses (Report of the Geological Survey, 1873-74, pp. 231, 233) will serve to illustrate the composition of the limonite :

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Mining has been carried on since 1849, and a charcoal blast furnace was erected in 1853, which has, at short intervals, been in blast ever since, with a production of between 30,000 and 40,000 tons of pig iron from about 70,000 tons of ore (chiefly limonite). In 1873 the mines, blast furnace, forge, casting house, steel works, &c., together with large tracts of land covered with fine hardwood forest were sold by the Acadia Charcoal Iron Company to the Steel Company of Canada, and since then two Siemen's rotatory furnaces for the production of steel direct from the ore have been erected. Two new blast furnaces in which the ores will be smelted with coke are also in process of construction. When completed they are to be 63 feet high, 19 feet in diameter at the boshes, and 5 feet at the hearth. In 1875, about 300 men were employed in the mines. A branch railroad, three and a half miles in length, connects the works with the Intercolonial Railroad, effecting a direct communication with the coal-fields of Pictou and Springhill. Mr. Benjamin McKay is the present manager at Londonderry.-Middle or Upper Silurian.

9. Pictou County, N.S., Lease No. 26,

(Fraser-Saddler area)....

a. Specimen of fibrous limonite.

J. D. Crawford & Co., Montreal.

The deposit from which this specimen was obtained has been traced along the north bank of the East Branch of the East River, from Springville to a point seven miles higher up. Several openings have been made, and the lode proved to vary in thickness from six to about twenty-two feet. Mr. Edwin Gilpin, the engineer in charge, states that the specimen exhibited is from a pit thirtyfive feet deep which proved the deposit to be eight feet thick at a point near the centre of the property. The following analysis (Rept. of the Geol. Survey, 187374, p. 233) shows the ore to be of excellent quality:

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Limestone suitable for a flux occurs in the immediate vicinity of the ore, and there are several coal mines in active operation only a few miles off.-Junction of the Upper Silurian and Carboniferous.

10. Pictou County, N.S., Cullen Area, (No. 105 of the Government Plan.)

a. Specimen of compact limonite.

J. D. Crawford & Co., Montreal.

On the banks of a small stream near the West Branch of the East River a band of quartzite intersected by numerous reticulating veins of limonite is exposed. The

veins are for the most part very thin, but according to Mr. Gilpin, there is one with a thickness of three feet. Judging from the numerous masses of ore scattered over the surface for a considerable dissance from the stream, there is some reason to suppose that the deposit will prove of economic value. "The ore is most favorably situated, having near it abundance of wood, water, and limestone, while the Intercolonial Railway passes within a few yards of the area."

The following is an analysis of a compact specimen of a dark brown colour and specific gravity 3.955. (See Report of the Geological Survey for 1873-74, p. 234)

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According to an analysis by Dr. T. E. Thorpe, of Glasgow, the ore is free from phosphorus.-Upper Silurian.

Spathic Iron Ore.

1. Sutherland's River, Pictou County, N. S.... J. D. Crawford & Co. Montreal

a. A specimen of spathic or sparry iron ore.

From an irregular bed occurring in sandstones of the Millstone-grit formation. The ore is crystalline, and, where unacted upon by the weather, of a light grey colour. A specimen, evidently somewhat weathered, contained as follows (Report of the Geological Survey, 1866-69, p. 442)

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The bed has been traced for several hundred yards, and where exposed in the bank of a brook has a thickness of about ten feet. According to Dr. Dawson its mode of occurrence is not unlike that of the non-fossiliferous sub-crystalline limestones found in some parts of the Lower Carboniferous series associated with gypsum.-Millstone-grit formation, Lower Carboniferous.

Clay Iron-stone.

1. North Saskatchewan River, N. W. T.

a. Specimens of clay iron-stone.

..Geological Survey.

From about two miles below Edmonton, and occurring in connection with a bed of lignite. Similar ores are found at many places along the Saskatchewan from Rocky Mountain House to Victoria, and at the latter locality both lignite and iron-stones occur in beds of considerable thickness. Further to the south-east also, iron-stores are widely distributed, generally in connection with the Tertiary lignites, in beds which are mostly thin, and in nodules sometimes weighing several hundred pounds. The average percentage of iron in several specimens from near Fort Edmonton, is 34.98. A specimen from the Dirt Hills contained 41.49 per cent. of iron, 1.18 of protoxide of manganese, .087 of phosphorus and .068 of sulphur.— Cretaceous?

COPPER

Native Copper.

1. Fraser River, about 30 miles above Fort H. Glassy, Kamloops, B.C. George, B.C......

a. Small nugget, found loose.

2. British Columbia....

a. Large nugget found loose.

Moody & Nelson, Victoria.

Native copper has not yet been found in rocks in situ in British Columbia, but the loose nuggets which are occasionally found indicate its existence, probably among some of the ancient volcanic rocks of the Province.

3. Michipicoten Island, Lake Superior......

a. Specimens of native copper.

. Geological Survey.

b. Specimen of sandstone contributed by W. W. Stuart, and polished to show the grains of native copper.

c. Cake of copper, weiging 100 lbs, smelted at Bruce Mines.

These specimens are from the location of the Quebec and Lake Superior Mining Association in the north-western part of Michipicoten Island. This island is formed of a series of igneous and sedimentary rocks, resembling the copper-bearing strata of Keeweena Point on the south side of Lake Superior. On the above location a shaft has been sunk to a depth of ninety-six feet on two contiguous copperbearing beds, which together have a thickness of about three feet, and contain an

average of about two and one-half per cent. of native copper. The uppermost of the beds is a reddish-grey sandstone, with fine particles and filaments of copper, and has a thickness of from one to two feet, while the lowermost is a bluish-grey amygdaloid from eight to eighteen inches thick, with coarser grains of copper, but amounting to about the same percentage as in the sandstone. The appearance of a section of the upper bed is shown in the woodcut below. These layers are underlaid by a soft argillaceous ash-bed, six feet or more in thickness and containing from one half to one per cent. of copper, below which is a massive greenstone. The copper-bearing beds are overlaid by massive compact greenstone, succeeded by amygdaloid and conglomerate. These strata dip south-eastward at an angle of 30°, or at the rate of three feet in a fathom. The location was leased and worked by Mr. Hugh R. Fletcher of Toronto, to whom we are indebted for the above facts. In 1860 he took forty-five tons of the ore to the Bruce Mines and there smelted one half of it without dressing, obtaining about three per cent. of fine copper. The balance was hand-dressed, and yielded on smelting 7 per cent. Work has been resumed at this locality during the past winter.-Copper-bearing Series.

Drawing showing the mode of occurrence of Native Copper at Michipicoten Island, Lake Superior.

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