CANADIAN ASBESTUS. 527 



of those who were to be burned upon the funeral pyre were 

 wrapped in asbestus cloth, that their ashes might be kept sepa- 

 rate from those of the pyre. In the eighth century Charlemagne 

 is said to have had an asbestus table-cloth, with which, when the 

 feast was over, he was wont to amuse his rude warrior guests by 

 throwing it into the fire, and in a short time withdrawing it 

 cleansed and uninjured. 



On the other hand, the first Canadian deposit was opened only 

 in 1878, and the owners experienced considerable difficulty in dis- 

 posing of their output, which for the season did not exceed fifty 

 tons. In 1889, with a Canadian output for the year of nearly five 

 thousand tons, the demand is in excess of the supply, and is in- 

 creasing, with prices showing an upward tendency. 



The asbestus of commerce is the product of two widely sepa- 

 rated countries Italy and Canada. The Italian article was first 

 in the market, but the Canadian product soon made for itself a 

 place and a name, and the mineral is now shipped from Canada to 

 Italy ; while toward the close of 1889 the United Asbestus Com- 

 pany, Limited, of London, England, which controls the Italian 

 mines, acquired property in the Canadian field, and is equipping 

 the same with a complete plant preparatory to operations on a 

 large scale. It is very evident, then, that the Canadian fiber is, to 

 say the least, no mean factor in the asbestus industry. 



Canadian asbestus occurs in serpentine, being, as already ex- 

 plained, a fibrous form of this mineral. In two great geological 

 formations represented in Canada there are extensive areas of ser- 

 pentine, viz. the Laurentian, which, beginning on the coast of 

 Labrador, stretches westward beyond the Great Lakes ; and the 

 Quebec Group, a formation occupying a large portion of the 

 province of Quebec lying between the river St. Lawrence and 

 the United States boundary. In the serpentine of both these for- 

 mations asbestus occurs, but as yet it has not been proved that 

 the asbestus veins of the Laurentian serpentines are sufficiently 

 persistent to warrant mining operations. It is not improbable 

 that productive areas may yet be found in the Laurentian rock, 

 as prospectors are now turning attention in this direction. But 

 at present it is only in the serpentine of the Quebec Group that 

 productive mining is carried on. 



In this formation there is a belt of serpentine rock "which 

 extends with tolerable directness, though with frequent breaks, 

 northeastward from the Vermont boundary to some distance be- 

 yond the Chaudiere River," which flows into the St. Lawrence 

 near the city of Quebec. Throughout the whole of this belt there 

 are indications of the occurrence of asbestus, but the present pro- 

 ductive area comprises only a very small portion of this extensive 

 belt. Although good workings occur elsewhere, the great majority 



