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lands. The same is true as regards the pliosphate region in Quebec, 

 It is this system of unconditional sale of mining lands for speculation, 

 without regard to yearly working, that has ruined the mining interests 

 of this district. The error of any one party owning a large extent of 

 mining land in a block, aiises from the fact, which is well known 

 to experienced miners and ex]jlorers, that by selling, say to an 

 Iron Mining Company, a few tliousand acres in a block, it gets other 

 minerals, which it cannot treat, or the use of which it may not know, 

 and the ores other than iron remain unworked. 



Compare the system adopted in the Western United States, whei'e 

 a mining claim is given to the discoverer on condition that it is worked, 

 or has lal)or spent on it to the extent of $100 each year; failing which 

 it reverts to the Government. Under that system the right of discovery 

 of the explorer, prospector, or miner, is respected, and a reward granted 

 him (he can locate two claims), but in Ontario and Quebec, he has no 

 rights, and he is, therefore, drawn to the more inviting fields of the 

 United States. The location of the claim in the States is made by the 

 discoverer on the ground, and is placed on record in the Land Office; 

 but in this district it is made by a clerk in the Land Office, and not by 

 the discoverer; a practice which has proved fruitful of the worst 

 abuses and frauds on Canadian discovery. In the United States, by 

 granting mining claims in that way, ore accumulated under the clause 

 compelling at least so much work each and every year, and from its 

 accumulation arose the necessity for milling or smelting works to work 

 it up, and had the same inducements and compulsion been in force in 

 Canada, our mines would have been counted liy the thousand, instead 

 of the few now in operation. 



The chief ores of this region are: iron, (hematites and magnetic), 

 phosphate, or apatite, and a large variety of pyrites, or sulphuret ores 

 of the miners, holding in places copper, gold and silver in workable 

 quantities, lead or galena, plumbago (black-lead), mica, and othei'S of 

 less importance. 



The ores of iron are found in such variety and abundance that the 

 only reason they are not now worked is the question of cheap fuel foi' 

 reduction. Next spring certain tests of machinery are to be made, and 

 should they prove as successful as former trials, this question will be 



