Geologist of Maine, in his report to the legislature called at- 

 tention to the occurrence of wolframite in the granites of the 

 Blue Hill region as an indication of the probable presence 

 of tin and recommended that search be made for it. 



The existence of sporadic pockets of cassiterite (the only- 

 commercial ore of tin) in the tourmaline bearing rocks of 

 Hebron and Paris Hill is thoroughly established but its 

 presence has so far been but sparingly demonstrated and 

 the search for it has probably been entirely subordinated 

 to the mining for those rarely beautiful and valuable speci- 

 mens of gem tourmaline which have made these localities 

 world-famous. Some of the individual crystals of cassiterite 

 from Paris Hill have equalled in size and lustre any that I 

 have ever seen from the larger tin-fields of the world. 



Throughout a large portion of the granite matrix of the 

 vast molybdenite ore-body developed by myself at Catherine 

 Hill, in Hancock County, there occurs a dissemination of 

 minute cassiterite crystals and I have singly and in collabora- 

 tion with that wonderful chemist, the late Dr. Ora Willis 

 Knight, reduced metallic tin from crushed samples of this 

 rock, but, of course, only on a laboratory scale and upon 

 a far from economic basis. 



The only serious attempt to develop a tin mine in Maine 

 was made on Drummond Brook in the town of Winslow, 

 three miles below Waterville, in Kennebec County. 



Some half century ago, a returned California miner by 

 the name of Charles Chipman noticed a series of quartz 

 veins carrying unusual minerals crossing the bed of this 

 brook, with the cooperation of Daniel Moor, of Waterville, 

 he opened a small prospect pit on the bank of the brook 

 and soon learned that among the unusual minerals carried 

 by these veins was cassiterite, the only commercial ore of 

 tin, in the form of dark brown and black lustrous crystals, 

 much higher in specific gravity than the associate minerals 

 in the gangue matter of the veins. 



Nothing of note occurred, however, until, in the year 

 1880, Dr. Augustus Choate Hamlin, a distinguished citizen 

 of Bangor, an authority on gems and gem mining, and the 

 principal owner of the celebrated tourmaline mines on Mt. 

 Mica, organized a corporation known as the Maine Tin 

 Mining Company and began sinking a shaft on the site of the 

 old Chipman prospect pit. Associated with Dr. Hamlin in this 

 company were a number of well-known citizens of Kenne- 

 bec and Penobscot counties and the actual shaft sinking 



81 



