of a part of the Saguenay Country. 89 
much in request for chimney-pieces, 'c. It well deserves to 
be worked. The discovery of marble at this place is not a very 
new one. Charlevoix, who anchored here in 1720, in the Cha- 
meau, a French King’s-ship, landed at the small stream at the 
bottom of the bay, and it is probably in allusion to this very 
bed, which he could not have faikd to see, that he says, in 
speaking of the place, ‘ tout ce pays est plein de marbre.’({) 
The marble in question was long ago known to the North 
West Company.” 
It is acurious fact, that this marble was bought for gyp- 
sum ; the purchaser, as we are informed, on the most respectable 
authority, ground it up for cement, and found it to answer very 
well. If so, he must first have expelled its carbonic acid by 
means of a powerful heat, for there is no doubt whatever of its 
being a very pure carbonate of lime, and its association with 
granite and gneiss places it among the primary marbles, That 
gypsum has ever been found among primary rocks, so as to 
indicate its primary origin, is doubted by some geologists. It 
bears a strong resemblance to alabaster, and probably on that 
account was mistaken for gypsum, On the subject of this 
mistake the following extract of a letter, addressed by us to 
the Editor of the Quebec Mercury, is given ;— 
“ Two kinds of alabaster only aré known,—that formed on 
the floors of caverns by calcareous depositions from the roof, 
called stalagmites, and some varieties of gypsum or sulphate of 
lime. The former it cannot be, and one of the latter it is not 
for the following reasons :—All the varieties of gypsum except 
the anhydrous may be scratched by the nail, which this cannot 
be. None of them effervesce in acid, which this not only 
does but forms a clear solution in: The gypsums fall to pow- 
der 
({) A remarkable instance of exaggeration if be alluded only to the bed in 
question ; but it is probable that, deceived by the whitened surfaces of al- 
most all the rocks in this place, be mistook that for marble which was only 
the rock it ways associated with, M 
