STEEL MAKING IN NOVA SCOTIA—GILPIN. 15 
Scotia to steel making, by either of the above processes, may be 
intelligently considered. 
In the Province of Nova Scotia we have entered upon the 
steel making era. In one sense this was the case twenty-five 
years ago, when cement steel was made at Londonderry from 
the product of a small charcoal furnace. From a_ practical 
standpoint, however, steel making may be said to have com- 
menced when the New Glasgow Iron, Coal and Railway Company 
made Bessemer pig at Ferrona, in Pictou County, for conversion 
into steel at Trenton. The ores belonging to this company, on 
the East River of Pictou, produce a pig admirably suited for the 
Bessemer process. For more common grades the company has 
drawn upon Torbrook, and are preparing to import from New- 
foundlaud ores which exert a softening effect on the pig iron and 
fit it for foundry use. Favorably situated as this company is 
for very pure ores, cheap and close at hand, the basic process 
presents few attractions. It may be predicted that when the 
other iron ore properties of the Pictou district become developed 
it will be a great steel producer, and also be in a position to 
supply the demand of the foundryman. 
In the Nictaux district, in Annapolis County, on the contrary 
the conditions, so far as they are worked out, resemble rather 
those of Germany, and a vast series of ores are presented suitable 
for the basic process, in addition to some which can be graded 
as Bessemer. 
Nictaux is the name given to a district on the south side of 
the Annapolis Valley, about thirty miles from Annapolis. It is 
traversed by the Nova Scotia Central Railway from Middleton 
on the Windsor Railway to Lunenburg on the Atlantic: and by 
the Nictaux River, which has cut deeply into the south moun- 
tain. The geological age of this iron-bearing district has been 
partially worked out by Sir William Dawson, who refers the 
iron ore rocks to the Devonian. I shall however not enlarge on 
this point, as Dr. A. H. MacKay has spent some time in the 
district, and has kindly consented to describe the geological 
features in detail. 
