CANADIAN APATITE. 37 



Strange to say, although much United States capital is involved 

 in our mines, little or none of the raw material is shipped there 

 direct, but after treatment in England, a considerable quantity is sent 

 there. The reason for this appears difficult to find, as materials for 

 sulphuric acid manufacture are cheap, both here and in the United 

 States. 



It is of the greatest -importance to the prosperity of the country 

 that our farmers should eai-ly become aware of the great value of 

 superphosphate as a fertilizer. Now, not only is phosphorus exported 

 in this condition, but large quantities of wheat containing much 

 phosphoric acid are sent out of the country ; and thus the land is im- 

 poverished without the concomitant addition of this valuable ele- 

 ment in the form of a soluble phosphate. A proper balance between 

 the phosphoric acid removed by vegetation and that returned in the 

 form of a fertilizer must be maintained, if we are to expect such 

 bountiful harvests in the future as we have enjoyed in the past. 

 With the realization of the worth of superphosphate by agricultu- 

 rists, the manufacturing industry of sulphuric acid will receive a 

 healthy impetus, and then we shall be more fully able to estimate the 

 great value of our Canadian apatite deposits. 



This paper is the result of information gained and observations 

 made while staying with the late John G. Miller, on his ex- 

 tensive phosphate mines in Templeton Township, a few years, ago ; , 

 and in reading this paper before the Canadian Institute, a society 

 one of whose duties and privileges it is to place on record the work 

 of Canada's benefactors, I think it not inappropi'iate to conclude with 

 a word of tribute to the memory of a gentleman who contributed not 

 a little to Canadian Geology and Mineralogy, and who occupied a 

 position in the foremost rank of the pioneers of phosphate mining. 

 Mr. Miller was an enthusiastic and skilful worker, and, possessing an 

 untiring energy, he placed Canada under a lasting debt of gratitude by 

 the assistance he rendered the authorities of the Geological Survey, by 

 the able articles which he contributed through the Ottawa press, by 

 the enterprise which he displayed in opening up and developing 

 Canada's mineral resources, and lastly by the large and valuable col- 

 lection of minerals which he made, and which is now known in the 

 Museum of McGill College as " The Miller Collection." 



