THE 



CANADIAN NATUKALIST 



AND 



(Quart^dy ^ourual of 5ri<jua. 



CANADIAN PHOSPHATES 

 CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR USE 



IN AGRICULTURE. 



By Gordon Broome, F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Canada. 



Among the numerous sources of wealth mcluded within 

 the vast thickness of the Laurentian system, — those ancient 

 metamorphic rocks developed on such a grand scale in our 

 Canadian geology, — few are invested with a larger amount 

 of scientific interest than the mineral apatite, a substance 

 already ranking among our economics, and probably destined 

 to constitute, in the future, one of the most important of the 

 raw materials of Canada, one of those sinews of the 

 country, upon which her industrial advancement must ever 

 be primarily founded. 



It is, therefore, highly desirable that what is at present 

 known of the extent and character of the apatite deposits 

 of Canada should at once bo made available ; and that the 

 attention of this and other societies in the Dominion should 

 be, to a proper extent, directed to facts relating to a mineral, 

 at once so interesting and so practically useful. 



With this in view, we would state, first of all, what are 

 the purposes to which the mineral is adapted ; the processes 

 by which it is rendered available ; and, as far as can be 

 ascertained, the past and present extent of its usefulness. 



YOL. Y. Q J^o. 3. 



