COLLECTING SILVER MINERALS IN ONTARIO, 



CANADA 



By EDWARD P. HENDERSON, 



Assistant Curator of Geology, U. S. National Museum 



For the purpose of acquiring a series of silver minerals for exhibi- 

 tion, I left Washington late in August on a collecting trip into the 

 Province of Ontario, Canada, the National Museum's collections being 

 badly in need of material from the rich silver camps of this nearby 

 region. Practically the entire month of September was spent in north- 

 ern Ontario, and it would be difficult to select a more delightful sea- 

 son in which to visit this magnificent country. 



At Toronto I spent several days in inspecting the collections at the 

 Royal Ontario Museum of Mineralogy, selecting exchange material, 

 and consulting with the mineralogists of the staff as to the best areas 

 and mines to visit. 



Leaving Toronto, I first visited the Cobalt district some 300 miles 

 north, where the country in general is rather rough with many rocky 

 ridges, between which are lakes, swampy wastes, or agricultural low- 

 lands. These lowlands and therefore the streams, lakes, and high- 

 ways generally lie in a north and south direction. There is abundant 

 timber, mostly spruce, birch, balsam, and jack pine. Many forests have 

 been swept by devastating fires leaving only charred stumps stand- 

 ing; in other areas, where more time has elapsed since the fires or 

 original clearing for lumber, a dense, almost jungle-like growth has 

 taken possession, the new growth being less suitable for lumber than 

 the original stand of virgin timber. 



Previous to 1903 the area around Cobalt consisted of wooded land 

 which served as a source for lumber and constituted a natural bar- 

 rier to the agricultural lands farther north, but in that year, during 

 the excavating for the Temiskaming and Northern Railroad, narrow 

 veins of phenomenally high silver values were discovered. The silver 

 content was so great that trained engineers who came to examine the 

 find thought that the quantity could not be large because of its rich 

 quality but time has proved these conclusions to be erroneous. The 

 history of this celebrated silver camp is very dramatic and has been 

 told so often that it need not be repeated here. 



The silver veins vary from minute seams up to a thickness of ten 

 inches. In places the veins are almost solid silver and again the metal 



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