Ill 



As already stated, nickel is seldom or never absent from the ser- 

 pentine of this area, but rarely forms more than two or three thous- 

 andths of the minerals in which it generally appears to be combined as 

 a silicate. With the chrome-garnet of Oxford, the sulphuret of nickel 

 (millerite), occurs in small grains and prismatic crystals, disseminated 

 through the mixture of garnet and calcite in small quantity. 



The most important mineral found in the Eastern Township ser- 

 pentine is chrysotile, generally called asbestus, although the true asbes- 

 tus is a fibrous tremolite or hornblende. 



Of this mineral, which traverses the serpentine in irregular veins, 

 varying in size from mere threads to a thickness of five or six inches, 

 much has been said by Dr. Ells in his two last reports on the Eastern 

 Townships. This mineral, which is undoubtedly a segregated one, is 

 supposed by some to have been formed during the cooling of the mass in 

 which it is found. They compare the cooling surpentine to a mass of 

 cooling molasses, and say that asbestus is formed in the same way as the 

 thin sugar fibres are produced in this substance when it is drawn out in 

 the working. Acccording to this theory the longer asbestus veins 

 would be the fir.er ; but it happens to be the contrary. Moreover, how 

 in this way could the presence of chromic iron, which is sometimes 

 highly magnetic, be explained as occurring in veins in the asbestus veins 

 themselves, cutting the latter very often into two equal parts 1 



The existence of asbestus in this country was detected by Sir Wm, 

 Logan in 1851 ; bnt it was only iu 1877 that the first deposit of any 

 commercial value was discovered. A habitant by the name of Fecteau 

 was the happy finder. 



In 1878 Messrs. Ward, John Johnston, Andrew Johnston and the 

 Honorable George Irvine opened the first asbestus mine. 



Asbestus was but little known by the ancient people, who used it 

 only for the manufacture of cloths in which were placed the bodies of 

 the great and distinguished men for cremation. By so doing they could 

 keep their ashes from being mixed with any impurity. This minera 

 was then scarce and very costly ; its property of not being consumed by 

 fire made it a wonderful and even a marvellous thing. It used to be 

 then kept as an object of curiosity rather than of commercial value. 

 Even in the seventeenth century asbestus was employed in the manufac- 



