so ROYAL SOCIl'.TY UF CANADA 



tons of oro and one ton of coke made a ton of pig iron. The production 

 of coke at Connellsville, near Pittsburg, Pa., is about 170,000 tons per 

 week. This coke, which is free of duty, has been delivered in Lake 

 Superior by rail and water at $4.25 per ton, while '' I'ittsburg *' coal 

 (from which it is made) has been laid down there by water at $1.85 

 alongside wharf, subject to duty of fifty-three cents per t* n. About one 

 and three-quarter tons of Connellsville coal are required to make a tod 

 of coke. It may require nearly two tons of inferior coal to make one 

 ton of coke. 



Nova Scotia coal, water borne, is the only Canadian coal which 

 might be used in Lake Superior; but as long as a supply of charcoal 

 can be obtained it will probably yield a better quality of iron at a snialler 

 cost per ton than any other fuel. 



The iron ore deposits on the Canadian side of Lake Superior are 

 said to be the most extensive known ; it is asserted that two million 

 tons are in sight on a single quarter section in the Atikokan belt. The 

 quality is both hematite and magnetite, and chiefly Bessemer ore. 



I am indebted to Dr. George Dawson, Director of the Geological 

 Survey, for the following account of Canadian ore west of Lake Superior: 



Iron ores are widely distributed throughout the district west of 

 Lake Superior. They occur in rocks of Keewatin (Huronian) age as 

 magnetites and hematites and in the Animikie as carbonates and hem- 

 atites. The principal belts are one extending from the Kaministiquia 

 Eiver westerly up the valley of the ]\Iatawin River and continuing to 

 beyond the Township of Moss, and another following the course of the 

 Atikokan and Seine Rivers. 



Along the first of these, outcrops of ore have been found at many 

 points, but notably in the neighbourhood of the Matawin River, where 

 extensive deposits of both magnetite and hematite (hard ores) have been 

 partially exploited by open trenching and by the diamond drill. Though 

 generally considerably banded with jasper, large deposits of clean ore 

 occur here. On the Atikokan belt the ore is a high grade magnetite 

 averaging over sixty per cent metallic iron. Along -the Atikokan, the 

 eastern part of the belt, the ore carries no titanium and but a trace of 

 sulphur, and is con.=c(iuently a good Bessemer ore. It occurs in long, 

 lenticular masses which swell out to widths of upwards of fifty feet and 

 which are vertical or nearly so in attitude. Three or more roughly 

 parallel bands of ore arc separated by belts of country rock (diorite and 

 hornblende schist) from twenty feet to a few feet in width. Tlie whole» 

 width is often considerably over a hundred feet and the l)odies of ore 

 which can be followed as recurring lenticules for many miles are trace- 

 able as continuous ore bodies for upwards of 500 yards. (See Annual 



