36 The Phosphates of America. 



Others, again, have contended that it must have been ejected 

 from the earth's interior by volcanic action, and prominent among 

 these is the present Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 A. R. C. Selwyn, who says : 



" My own examinations of the Canadian apatite deposits (veins, 

 etc.) have led me to a conclusion respecting their origin correspond- 

 ing with that of the Norwegian geologists. I hold that there is 

 absolutely no evidence whatever of the organic origin of the apatite, 

 or that the deposits have resulted from ordinary mechanical sedi- 

 mentation processes. They are clearly connected, for the most part, 

 with the basic eruptions of Archaean date." 



This view is also taken by Mr. Eugene Coste, who, in his report 

 on the "Mining and Mineral Statistics of Canada for 1887," con- 

 cludes an article on " The Iron Ores and Phosphate Deposits (?) in 

 the Archaean Rocks " by saying : 



" It is only natural that we should conclude, as many other 

 geologists have done before, that the iron ore and phosphate to be 

 found in our Archa3an rocks are the result of emanations which 

 have accompanied or immediately followed the intrusions through 

 these rocks of many varied kinds of igneous rocks which are no 

 doubt the equivalent of the volcanic rocks of to-day. These de- 

 posits, then, are of a deep-seated origin, and consequently the fears 

 entertained, principally by our phosphate miners, that their deposits 

 are mere surface pockets, are not well founded. These fears are 

 no doubt partly the result of the belief which has' been somewhat 

 prevalent that the apatite in them was the metamorphic equivalent 

 of the phosphate nodules of younger formations, and it may be also 

 that they have resulted from the fact that the apatite is irregularly 

 distributed in these deposits and is often suddenly replaced by rock. 

 But notwithstanding this, when the deposits are properly under- 

 stood to be, as we hold they are, igneous dykes and veins accom- 

 panying the igneous rocks, it will be easily seen why in the 

 deposit itself the economic minerals can be suddenly replaced by 

 rocks which may be said to be nothing else but the gangue. If this 

 origin is understood it will facilitate and encourage the working of 

 these deposits in depth, because the accompanying igneous rock, 

 forming a mass or a dyke alongside of the deposit, will be easy to 

 follow, and because if it is apatite or iron-bearing at the surface, it 

 will always be a guarantee that it will also be in depth, as each sepa- 

 rate mass of igneous rock is generally quite constant in composi- 

 tion/' 



