OF CENTRAL CANADA PART II. 65 



soluble in ammonia : characters which distinguish it from chloride of 

 lead. 



Native silver occurs in a broad vein of calc spar at Prince's Mine, 

 Spar Island, and on the adjacent main land, on the north-west shore 

 of Lake Superior. It is associated at this spot with blende, galena, 

 amethyst, quartz, &c., and contains, according to Dr. Sterry Hunt, a 

 small amount of gold ; but the mine has been prematurely abandoned. 

 East of this location, around Thunder Bay, several broad veins occur, 

 in which native silver has been found in still larger quantities. The 

 veinstone consists in part of amethystine and colourless quartz, and 

 partly of crystalline calc spar, accompanied by heavy spar, fluorspar, 

 blende, galena, and pyrites. The silver is also associated here and there 

 with silver-glance or black sulphide of silver. It does not appear to con- 

 tain gold. Silver Islet, near Thunder Cape, is one of the more re- 

 markable of these localities, but the accessible portion of the vein at 

 this spot appears to be now worked out. This metal occurs also in 

 the native state, but in sparing quantities, associated with copper- 

 glance in a calcspar and quartz vein on the Island of Saint Ignace ; 

 and with native copper on the Island of Michipicoten, further east. 

 Native silver has likewise been seen occasionally, in small filaments, 

 among the copper ores of the Acton Mine, in the Province of 

 Quebec. 



The occurrence of silver in galena, blende, pyrites, and other min- 

 erals, will be noticed under the descriptions of these substances, i. 



6. Native Copper : Copper-red ; malleable ; Regular in crystalliza- 

 tion, but occurring generally in arborescent groups of minute indis- 

 tinct crystals, or in masses of irregular form. H = 2.5 3.0 ; sp. 

 gr. 8.8 8.95. BB, easily fusible into a shining globule which 

 becomes covered, on cooling, with a coatijig of black oxide. Readily 

 soluble in nitric acid. The diluted solution is rendered intensely blue 

 by addition of ammonia. 



Native copper, although so abundant on the south shore of Lake 

 Superior, has not been found, as yet, very abundantly in Canada. 

 It occurs, however, in many of the amygdaloidal traps and green- 

 stones, of the Upper Copper- bearing series of the north and east shores 

 of the lake, associated with prehnite, epidote, chlorite, &c. Here 

 and there it has been obtained in irregular masses of the weight of 

 several pounds ; but it occurs most commonly scattered through the 

 6 



