274 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Aug. 



Matter insoluble in acid, principally graphite 18-90 



Peroxide of iron = 57-45 per cent, of the metal 82-05 



100-95 



Another specimen which was considered less rich than that just 

 mentioned, but containing less disseminated graphite, and more of 

 it in crystalline scales occurring in the cracks, gave, 



Silicious matter, insoluble in acids 7-4 



Peroxide of iron = 6484 per cent, of the metal 92'6 



100-0 



Besides these qualities, an immense quantity of ore is worked 

 which is evidently mixed with very considerable portions of argil- 

 laceous and calcareous matter. A specimen of this character gave 

 on analysis as follows : 



Silicious matter, insoluble in acid 36*20 



Peroxide of iron ™ 34*76 per cent, metallic iron 49-65 



Carbonate of lime 12-90 



9875 



In none of the excavations does the underlying rock appear to 

 have been reached, and since outside of the workings the underly- 

 ing red shales have a strong dip towards the deposit, there would 

 seem reason for supposing the existence of a large body of ore even 

 below the level of the present excavations. To the west of the 

 ore-bed, and apparently dipping underneath the above-mentioned 

 red shales, other slates occur, very richly impregnated with iron py- 

 rites. Beyond these, and nearer the New Caledonia bed, vertical 

 strata of micaceous schist are observable. The excavation on the 

 New Caledonia bed was filled with water, but similar relations seem 

 prevail there as at the Old Caledonia. At the former deposit, how- 

 ever, the overlying sandstone is not only very much hardened in 

 contact with the ore, but is broken up into a breccia, the inter- 

 stices of which are filled up with highly siliceous ore. On the 

 whole, it would seem as if all the iron deposits of this neighbor- 

 hood had been formed at the same time and in the same manner, 

 and they may have even constituted parts of one and the same 

 original mass. At Keene's ore-bed, about a mile distant from the 

 Caledonia workings, the geological relations are the same, although 

 the overlying sandstone is much brecciated, and it, as well as the 



