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seated on the small eminence which then marked the site of what is 

 now known as the " Murray Mine." Early in 1884 the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway made a cutting for their main line through this small hilh 

 about T,}4 miles northwest of Sudbury, and on July 1 2th of the same year 

 Dr. Selwyn made a careful examination of the location and pronounced 

 the lode to be one of the most promising he had yet seen in Canada. 

 Other discoveries soon followed, and the McConnell, Lady Macdonald, 

 Stobie, Blezard, Copper Cliff and Evans Mines were all located. At 

 first the wildest notions were entertained as to the extent of these de- 

 posits, and the most exaggerated reports circulated as to their value. 

 It was even confidently asserted that these were immensely important 

 discoveries, and would revolutionize the whole copper trade and render 

 other mines then in operation quite unremunerative. Rounded hills 

 of gossan, indicating the presence of the more solid and unaltered ore 

 beneath, occur at intervals for miles in a southwesterly direction, con- 

 forming rudely to the strike of the rocks in the vicinity. This circum- 

 stance is all that seems to have justified the early discoverers in describ- 

 ing the deposits as veritable mountains of solid ore, many miles in 

 extent and hundreds of feet thick. Closer investigation revealed the 

 fact that these surface gossans everywhere indicate the presence of the 

 ore beneath, and that the ore itself occurs in lenticular masses, entirely 

 separated from one another, whose longer axes correspond with the 

 strike of the enclosing rock. This gossan has resulted, as is usual, from 

 the formation of peroxide and hydrated peroxide of iron, due to the 

 decomposition of the pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite which gives a prevail- 

 ing red or reddish brown colour to the upper portion of the deposit. 

 This covering of iron oxide is sometimes as much as six feet in depth, 

 although usually it is only two or three feet, gradually merging itself 

 into the unaltered ore beneath. During the last few years prospectors 

 have not been idle, and at the present time about twenty very promising 

 deposits of these ores have been " located " and " taken up." The 

 McAllister Mine, now called the Lady Macdonald Mine, was the first 

 property on which any work was done in the summer of 1885, although 

 later. in the fall the Evans Mine was opened up and some preliminary 

 tests made. On January 6th, 1886, the Canadian Copper Compary 

 was formed with a subscribed and paid up capital of $2,000,000, which 



