32 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



from the official bulletin of the Survey we find that in the ten 

 years, from 1886 to 1895, the quantity of graphite produced in 

 all Canada, including the output from New Brunswick, amounted 

 in value to less than 30,000 dollars, while the value of the im- 

 ports of this material for the sixteen years from 1880 amounted 

 to over half a million dollars. This is certainly a bad showing 

 in the face of the fact that we have more than enough of the 

 the raw material to supply all our own needs and to furnish 

 plenty for export besides. Certain changes now in contempla- -J 



tion may in a few years result in effecting a marked difference 

 in the balance of these figures, but this wiil onl}- be done by 

 changing entirelj^ the present inoperative system of management. 

 At one mine north of the Madawaska River, not many miles 

 north from the Kingston and Pembroke Railway, there is a won- 

 derful deposit of this mineral, the amount in sight being 

 apparently sufficient if properly handled to supply the market 

 alone for some years, while the great deposits of the Buckingham 

 district have as yet only been opened sufficiently to show their 

 great extent and value. 



Molybdenum. 



The peculiar mineral molybdenum which has recently come 

 into prominence in mining circles, is somewhat widely dis- 

 tributed through the crystalline rocks of the Ottawa basin. In 

 physical features it is sometimes mistaken for flake graphite 

 which it resembles strongly in the field. Along the Ottawa 

 River it occurs in limited quantity in certain of the rocks on 

 Calumet Island, though the extent of the deposit here has never 

 been ascertained, but at or near Haley Station, on the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway, there is a large deposit of this mineral which 

 has been worked for some years in a desultory fashion. 

 Recently, however, the mine has been reopened and a consider- 

 able output is now being obtained for shipment. Along the 

 Gatineau River this mineral is found in several of the adjoining 

 townships, but apparently the most important deposit yet 

 located in this direction is in the township of Egan, north of the 

 Desert River, where it appears to have a large development. It 



