STEEL MAKING IN NOVA SCOTIA GILPIN. 15 



Scotia to steel making, by either of the above processes, may be 

 intelligently considered. 



In the Province of Nova Scotia we have entered upon the 

 steel making era. In one sense this was the case twenty- five 

 years ago, when cement steel was made at Londonderry from 

 the product of a small charcoal furnace. From a practical 

 standpoint, however, steel making may be said to have com- 

 menced when the New Glasgow Iron, Coal and Railway Company 

 made Bessemer pig at Ferrona, in Pictou County, for conversion 

 into steel at Trenton. The ores belonging to this company, on 

 the East River of Pictou, produce a pig admirably suited for the 

 Bessemer process. For more common grades the company has 

 drawn upon Torbrook, and are preparing to import from New- 

 found laud ores which exert a softening effect on the pig iron and 

 fit it for foundry use. Favorably situated as this company is 

 for very pure ores, cheap and close at hand, the basic process 

 presents few attractions. It may be predicted that when the 

 other iron ore properties of the Pictou district become developed 

 it will be a great steel producer, and also be in a position to 

 supply the demand of the foundryman. 



In the Nictaux district, in Annapolis County, on the contrary 

 the conditions, so far as they are worked out, resemble rather 

 those of Germany, and a vast series of ores are presented suitable 

 for the basic process, in addition to some which can be graded 

 as Bessemer. 



Nictaux is the name given to a district on the south side of 

 the Annapolis Valley, about thirty miles from Annapolis. It is. 

 traversed by the Nova Scotia Central Railway from Middleton 

 on the Windsor Railway to Lunenburg on the Atlantic ; and by 

 the Nictaux River, which has cut deeply into the south moun- 

 tain. The geological age of this iron-bearing district has been 

 partially worked out by Sir William Dawson, who refers the 

 iron ore rocks to the Devonian. I shall however not enlarge on 

 this point, as Dr. A. H. MacKay has spent some time in the 

 district, and has kindly consented to describe the geological 

 features in detail. 



