392 On Metallic Minerals. 



is generally of a compactly laminar structure and white 

 colour. It takes, 1 believe, an excellent polish, and when, 

 as is frequently the case, the spots of serpentine are round, 

 small and thickly distributed, no handsomer material of 

 the kind can be found, nor one better adapted for many 

 ornamental purposes. It is so easily worked that rings 

 have been made of it. Blocks of almost any required size 

 may, 1 believe, be obtained, but of this there is no positive 

 certainty, because no quarries have yet been opened, 

 although it is said that they are about to be. 



But it is not the verde antico alone which demands notice. 

 A good description of white marble is found also herein 

 large quantities, and although I have seen none which 

 would answer the purpose of sculpture, it is very probable 

 that it may be found, if sought for. Its colour is tolerably 

 uniform, but some of the marble contains small crystals of 

 a brown mineral and occasionally parts are grey rather 

 than white. Its structure, as has been said, is compactly 

 laminar, the mass being composed of small laminae with 

 polished faces closely aggregated. It is harder than white 

 marble usually is, but effervesces freely in muriatic acid. — 

 It is deeply translucent on the edges. For building, and 

 for almost every purpose to which limestone is applied, it 

 would answer well, and judging from what I saw, it would 

 appear that any quantity might be obtained. About one 

 mile below the falls it is seen in greatest abundance, 

 apparently overlying serpentine, and forming with that 

 rock a perpendicular cliff about twenty or thirty feet high. 

 In short there appears to be an immense marble quarry in 

 this part of Canada, the limits of which have not been 

 ascertained 



The water retained bv the dam at the marble rock is 



