a very important industry in Great Britain, France, 

 Germany, and the United States, and has within the 

 last few years been successfully attempted at Mon- 

 treal. The phosphates employed for this purpose are 

 bones, certain kinds of guano, and coprolites, 

 the latter, a fossil form of phosphate of lime abun- 

 dant in some parts of England and France. But the 

 supplies of these materials being limited, and the 

 sources in many cases remote, attention has been 

 turned to the deposits of crystalline mineral phos- 

 phate of lime (called by mineralogists apatite.) This 

 substance is found to some extent in Norway and in 

 Spain, and the investigations of the Geological Sur- 

 vey have shown that it exists in abundance among 

 the Lauren tian rocks of Canada, forming veins, 

 which have been met with in several places along 

 the Ottawa, and more abundantly near Perth, upon 

 the line of the Rideau Canal. Here, over an area of 

 many square miles, phosphate of lime has been 

 found in a great number of localities, several of 

 which promise to yield abundant supplies of this 

 mineral. The attention of speculators has been turn- 

 ed to these deposits, which are in a locality favorable 

 for working, and for exportation, and during the last 

 year a New York company has expended a large 

 sum of money in opening several veins of the phos- 

 phate, with a view to extended mining operations. 

 This mineral phosphate is richer than the coprolites 

 so much used in England, and contains from thirty- 

 five to forty per cent of phosphoric acid. The work- 

 ing of these deposits is however undertaken solely 

 with a- view to exportation. In order to convert this 

 mineral into superphosphate there is required a 

 large quantity of sulphuric acid, a material which is 

 not manufactured in the country, and can only be 

 imported at a very considerable expense. As yet, the 



2 



