i7i Norway and in Canada, 127 



were made to smelt the ores, in a furnace erected on tlie spot, but 

 they are now shipped to Great Britain or to the United States. 

 The adjacent mines appears to be yielding even larger quantities 

 of ore than the Bruce. Copper mining has been attempted also 

 at Root River, at Echo Lake, and in many other localities in this 

 formation ; which, like its Norwegian equivalent, appears to be 

 eminently cupriferous. At the Wallace mine on Lake Huron, 

 copper pyrites occurs, with an arsenical snlphuret of nickel, but 

 the deposit has not been much examined. In the same vicinity, 

 Mr. Murray has described a bed of specular iron or red hematitic 

 ore, and he has shown that the immense deposits of this ore now 

 so extensively wrought at Marquette, in Northern Michigan, be- 

 long to the Huronian formation. 



From this sketch of the Huronian formation I think it will 

 appear evident that the same particulars characterize it as the cor- 

 responding group in Norway, viz: L The preponderance of 

 quartzose rocks. H. The presence of conglomerates of peculiar 

 character. HI. The occurrence of great masses of interstratified 

 diorites or greenstones. IV. The beds of hornstone or chert. 

 V. The presence of copper ores of a high percentage, unmixed 

 with iron pyrites ; the veinstone accompanying them being of 

 quartzose. VI. The presence of iron glance (specular iron ore) 

 in the few deposits of iron ore occurring in the group. 



In the absence of organic remains, it seems to me that the only 

 means left of identifying the same group in remote localities, is 

 to compare minutely their petrographical and other physical 

 characters. If this view be correct, there can be little doubt but 

 that the quartzose division of the primitive slate formation in 

 Norway, and the Huronian formation of Canada, are identical. 



In conclusion, I have to remark with regard to the development 

 of the mineral resources of both formations, that more appears to 

 have been accomplished in this respect in Canada, than in Norway; 

 seeing that the copper mines on the north shore of Lake Huron 

 have had more permanency than those of Tellemarken. Greater 

 progress is probably attributable only to the greater amount of 

 capital which has been invested in the former mines. The ob- 

 tacles met with have been substantially the same in both coun- 

 tries : the remoteness and inaccessibility of the region from the 

 ordinary markets, and the difficulties in the treatment of the ores. 

 These however have been overcome in this country, and the prin- 

 cipal mines on Lake Huron are now well established, and pro- 

 fitably wrought. 



