118 MINERALS AND GEOLOGY 



greenish-white, pale-green, grey, or brownish, with somewhat waxy lustre. 

 Very sectile. H = 2.5 - 3.0 ; sp. gr. 2.6 - 2.8. Infusible, or fuses only on the 

 thinnest edges, but differs (although perhaps only in some examples) from 

 steatite, proper, in being partially attacked by hot sulphuric acid. Occurs in 

 beds in the crystalline limestone of Grenville on the Ottawa. Also in the 

 townshiphs of Ramsay, Rawdon, and Lansdowne. The Grenville variety 

 yielded Dr. Sterry Hunt: silica 61-60, magnesia 31.06, iron protoxide 1.53, 

 water 5.60. 



83. Serpentine (including Retinalite, Chrysotile, &c.} : Greyish 

 green, oil-green, greyish-yellow, brown, reddish, sometimes nearly 

 white, and often veined or mottled. Mostly in compact, granular, 

 slaty masses, forming rock-beds. Occasionally fibrous, and then 

 commonly known as Serpentine-asbestos or Chrysotile. Also at 

 times in pseudomorphous crystals derived from the alteration of 

 chrysolite, pyroxene, amphibole, spinel, and other species. H = 2.5 

 4.0, but in general about 3.0. Very sectile. Sp. gr. 2.2 (fibrous 

 varieties) to 2.66 ; usually about 2.5. BB, fusible on thin edges 

 only. In the bulb-tube yields water. Decomposed by heated acids, 

 especially by sulphuric acid. Average composition : silica 42, mag- 

 nesia 42, iron protoxide 3, water 13. In Canada, serpentine is met 

 with abundantly in the older crystalline or Laurentian rocks, and 

 still more extensively in the crystalline strata of the Eastern Town- 

 ships and Gasps'. In Laurentian rocks it occurs principally in con- 

 nection with the crystalline or Eozoon limestones, as, more especially 

 in the township of Grenville on the Ottawa, on Calumet Island, and 

 in the township of Burgess in Lanark County. These Laurentian 

 serpentines are mostly pale-green or yellowish, often with spots and 

 streaks of a reddish-brown colour. Serpentine occurs also, in smaller 

 quantities, in some of the iron-ore beds of Belmont and Marmora. 

 In the metamorphic strata south of the St. Lawrence, large beds, 

 mostly intermixed with carbonate of lime or dolomite, and thus form- 

 ing serpentine marbles of more or less beauty, occur in the townships of 

 Melbourne, Orford, Broughton, Bolton, Ham, and Garthby, and 

 abundantly around Mount Albert in Gasp^. In many of these locali- 

 ties, the serpentine is closely associated with chromic iron ore. In 

 St. Francis in Beauce County, serpentine occurs also in connection 

 with magnetic and titaniferous iron ore ; and in Roxton, Brompton, 

 Orford, and other townships of that district, it often carries copper 

 pyrites and other copper ores. Finally, a fibrous asbestiform variety 



