219 



veins will warrant the expenditure of labor for this purpose. The 

 bulk of the barren serpentine necessary to be removed in order to obtain 

 a ton of fibre is consequently very great, and while no exact data are 

 to hand by which the relative proportion of asbestus and serpentine 

 can be determined, it has been estimated to range in the ratio of 25 to 

 1 in very prolific ground, to 50 to 1 in ordinary mining. Of course in 

 such a great quantity of waste rock, under the present system of work- 

 ing, many small veins or portions of veins are not removed, owing to 

 the expense and difficulty attending such operations by hand labor 

 only — and the great heaps of waste material have accumulated till they 

 now occupy large areas of valuable ground. As in the case of the drill- 

 ing and hoisting, however, where hand labor has been obliged to give 

 place to steam and compressed air, so, also, very shortly the breaking 

 and cobbing must also be done by machinery, and with proper appli- 

 ances, with a great saving of expense, as has resulted in the case of the 

 drilling and other operations ; since with a properly equipped mine the 

 cost of production can be reduced from 50 to 75 per cent, from the 

 expense due to the laborious system of hand labor. 



The history of asbestus mining presents some points ot interest in 

 view of the rapid growth of the industry. Comparatively little im- 

 portance was attached to the mineral, from the economic standpoint, in 

 the early days ot the Geological Survey's operations, and this combined 

 with the fact that, although asbestus had been known before 1850 in 

 the serpentines of the Eastern Townships, the quantity seen at the 

 places* where discovered was very limited, and led to the result that but 

 little heed was paid to its occurrence. In 1877, owing to the burning 

 off of the forest in Thetford and Coleraine townships, the hills of ser- 

 pentine became laid bare and the weathering speedily produced the 

 peculiar felting of the asbestus fibre on the surface wherever veins 

 occurred. T'his was observed by a French Canadian named Fecteau, it 

 is stated, and the importance of the new material was soon ascertained, 

 which resulted in the establishment of mining operations on a small 

 scale in the summer of the following year, by the Johnston Asbestus 

 Mining Company, although the credit of the first attempt at working 

 should probably be given to the Ward Brothers. The areas in the im- 

 mediate vicinity were speedily secured and new mines located, since 



