160 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Voy. VIII. 
ing Works have recently begun to produce commercial lead, stated to be 
of 99.9 per cent. purity,!8 by means of the Bett’s process, which is an 
electrolytic one. 
The Hall Mining and Smelting Works, whose Canadian headquarters 
are at Nelson, British Columbia, are smelting lead ores which are obtained 
in the Slocan and Kootenay Lakes. They employ blast furnaces, a con- 
siderable portion of the ore being first roasted in hand or mechanical fur- 
naces, and the product of the latter briquetted. The principal markets for 
the pig-'ead are the Orient, England, and Canada, though the home market 
is somewhat handicapped by the present arrangement of duties, which 
allows the importation of foreign corroded lead at a lower rate than that 
imposed on pig-lead. With a revisal of the duties a greatly increased 
‘development and revival of the lead and smelting industries is 
anticipated.!® bis. 
In 1894 the amount of silver exported, in ores, concentrates, or 
otherwise, was 629,655 ounces, while in 1901 the quantity had risen to over 
4,000,000 ounces.!? Despite these figures, the Monetary Times, Toronto, 
of date January 16th, 1903, says, ‘‘The silver-lead production of British 
Columbia is severely handicapped by the adverse competition of the 
United States, the European and Mexican products. The tariff is un- 
favourable; a higher one would be quite beneficial to the industry.” 
During the session of 1903 the Parliament of Canada provided for the 
payment of a bounty of 75c. per hundred pounds on lead smelted in Canada 
“from Canadian ores, the maximum amount of bounty payable in any one 
* 
year being $500,000, and the rate subject to proportionate reduction when 
the standard price of pig lead in London, England, exceeds 412 tos. 
per ton of 2,240 pounds. ‘This provision has led to the revival of silver- 
lead mining in British Columbia. A small plant for smelting lead has been 
erected at Bannockburn, Ont., to be used on the non-argentiferous ores 
of that locality.19 °’*- 
ARSENIC. 
A not unimportent metal found in considerable quantities in Ontario 
is arsenic; the chief form in which it occurs is arsenical pyrites (mispickel), 
which also contains gold. Its manufacture was begun by the Canadian 
Goldfields, Limited, at their Delora Mine, Hastings County, Ontario, in 
1899. Attempts had been made, extending over the previous twenty 
years or so, to extract the gold from the ore found there, and, after the 
mine had experienced some vicissitudes, the present company acquired 
(18) Letter from the Business Manager, Hall Mining and Smelting Co., Nelson, B.C. 
(19) Statistical Year Book of Canada, 1901. a 
(19 bis.) Letter from Mr. T. W. Gibson. 
