



201 \&i 



ASBESTUS; ITS HISTORY, MODE OF OCOURRENC 



AND USES. 



(By R. W. Ells, LL.D., F.G.S.A.) 



(Delivered January 15th, 1891.) 



The asbestus mines of the province of Quebec are, at the present 

 day, of special interest to the mining and industrial world, from the 

 fact that in so far as now known they practically represent the only 

 deposits where this mineral, of a quality adapted for spinning and for 

 the finer purposes of manufacture, can be profitably obtained. So 

 great are the advantages which these mines possess, particularly as 

 regards their accessibility and the ease with which the asbestus is 

 ■extracted, that unless fields as yet unknown and as easy of access can 

 be discovered, this province will doubtless long enjoy the position of 

 being the principal source of supply for this peculiar and important 

 substance. 



The rocks with which the asbestus veins are associated in Quebec 

 constitute a somewhat distinct series, which have, for the last thirty 

 years, been known under the name of the " Quebec group." They 

 comprise an extensive and important development of both sedimentary 

 and eruptive rocks, which extend throughout the eastern part of the 

 province, from the Vermont boundary to the extremity of the Gaspe 

 peninsula. They are not recognized in their entirety in any other 

 part of Canada, though certain portions of the group are found in their 

 extension southward into the United States. Crossing the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence they, however, form a very extensive belt in the island of 

 Newfoundland, where, more particularly at certain points on the west 

 coast, the same series of slates, sandstones, dioiites and serpentines 

 occur, the whole presenting features both from geological and miner- 

 alogical standpoints, very similar to what are seen in this portion of 

 Canada. While these rocks in Newfoundland have, to a certain extent, 

 been traced out, in so far at least as the entirely unsettled and un- 

 opened character of that section of the country permitted, no syste- 

 matic search for asbestus has as yet been made, though, that the 

 mineral occurs there at a number of points and in a variety of forms is 

 clearly indicated bv the specimens which have from time to time been 

 obtained in the course of the general geological exploration of the 



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