86 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vi. 



dissolve titanic iron ore. For this purpose the non-magnetic por- 

 tion, having been very finely powdered and sifted, is left to digest 

 with about ten times its weight of hydrochloric acid of specific 

 gravity 1.19, or thereabouts, for several hours, or until the undis^ 

 solved residue is no longer black, but grayish or brownish in 

 color. If the process has been conducted with care, and without 

 over-heating, the whole of the iron, and all of the titanic acid 

 which was combined with it, will be found in solution, and may 

 be separated by the ordinary methods. The residue, apparently, 

 contains little else than grains of quartz, with a small proportion 

 of garnet. The finely pulverized ore may also be fused with 

 bisulphate of soda, a process which is more expeditious, and yields 

 equally good results with the last. 



Moisie. — A specimen of unwashed black sand from Moisie, 

 holding 49.1 per cent of magnetic grains, was decomposed by 

 digestion with hydrochloric acid, and the residue fused with 

 bisulphate of soda. The titanic acid having been thrown down, 

 by boiling, from the united solutions, the iron was directly de- 

 termined, the other bases being neglected in this partial analysis, 

 which gave me the following results : 



I. 



Protoxyd of iron 70.10 = metallic iron 55.23 



Titanic acid 16.00 



Insoluble, chiefly quartz 5.92 



92.02 



A part of the iron in these ores is in a higher state of oxyda- 

 tion than here indicated, but the determination of the degree of 

 oxydation of the iron in titanic ores is difficult, and, as even the 

 mao-netic portion of the sands contains some titanic acid, it is 

 thought advisable, in the present analyses, to represent the whole 

 of the iron in these ores as protoxyd, giving, at the same time, 

 the amount of metallic iron, and, in the case of the magnetic por- 

 tions, the magnetic oxyd corresponding thereto. In the non- 

 magnetic portion of the Berismis sand, however, as will be seen, 

 the proportions of the two oxyds of iron were determined. The 

 magnetic grains having been removed from the above sample of 

 Moisie iron, the non-magnetic portion gave 58.20 of protoxyd of 

 iron, 30.74 of titanic acid, and 6.14 of insoluble residue. 



Further and more complete analyses were subsequently made 

 of the washed ore from the Moisie iron-works, which, as already 



