216 GEOLOGY OF CAPE BRETUN.—GILPIN. 
limestone. I have frequently observed it in films coating the 
joints of the coal seams. 
The precise effect of gypsum on soils is, I believe, still a matter 
of doubt, but unquestionably it and the limestone occur in the 
best farming districts in the Island. So far as I am aware no 
attempts have been made to practically test its effects on the 
poorer and colder soils of the Millstone grit or Devonian 
measures. 
The principal market for gypsum is found in the United 
States, where it is ground for agricultural purposes, and boiled 
and ground for the house builders’ use. The export of this 
mineral from Nova Scotia for a number of years past has varied 
between 80,000 and 150,000 tons a year. Little, if any, ground 
gypsum is exported to the United States, as there is a heavy duty 
imposed on it. Windsor and the surrounding villages form the 
principal point of export. The short transport via the Bay of 
Fundy, and the excellent position of the Nova Scotia quarries, 
close to shipping, have excluded the Cape Breton gypsum from 
the United States market. 
Lennox Passage, Baddeck, and St. Ann’s Harbor are the points 
in Cape Breton whence shipments have been’ made. The total 
amounts have, so far as my information goes, not exceeded 10,000 
tons in any one year. All this, I believe, goes up the St. Law- 
rence, and it is to be regretted that the markets of the Gulf are 
not extensive enough to permit an output in some degree pro- 
portionate to the extent of the deposits. 
The following analysis of a gypsum from a quarry opened 
some years ago, about four miles East of Baddeck, will serve to 
show the composition of an article of good quality :— 
Gypsum (hydrated lime sulphate)............ . 98.85 
Lime, Carbonate ¢) rain. erst o:0) on epee ete ils alae 1.07 
Sit: MENA AREER AMMA Unisgs emi nts. aL 
100.03 
The gypsum varies a little in hardness, the soft rock being 
generally preferred. The anhydrite is, as its name shows, the 
same mineral without water, it is seldom quarried, and forms 
