PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



25 



111 Duiigannon, Hastings county."' The mineral sotlalitc which so oitcn occurs in 

 this rock had been found in the district years before by prospectors. Dr. Adams 

 and his associates outlined the occurrence of nepheline syenite in what were called 

 three separate areas in the township of Dungannon and the adjoining township of 

 Faraday, and an outcrop of the rock was also known in Glamorgan, to the west.'-) 

 It was not, however, till October, 1896. that corundum was first found in the dis- 

 trict by Mr. Ferrier, and it was not till June or July, 1897, that this mineral was 

 known to be associated in the district with nepheline syenite, which had previously 

 attracted considerable attention on account of its comparatively rare occurrence ni 

 most parts of the world and on account of the size of the nepheline individuals an 1 

 the high percentage of the mineral carried by the rock. 



In 1890 Dr. A. P. Coleman published a^ very interesting paper on the character 

 of some glacial boulders which he had found in the vicinity of Cobourg.'^!' Among 

 these boulders were some which Dr. Coleman determined to be nepheline syenite. 

 It was, therefore, known at that time that this rock occurred in place somewhere 

 in the region to the north where it has since been found to be so widely distributed. 



Although corundum is a mineral of considerable interest scientifically as well 

 as economically, no discovery of it was reported in Canada after Sterry Hunt's 

 discovery of it in the crystalline limestone of North Burgess in the later forties till 

 Ferrier's find was made in the autumn of 1896. 



After once having seen the corundum in the nepheline syenite of the town- 

 ship of Raglan, where this association was first found, it seemed to me likely that 

 the mineral would be found to occur in the already known outcrops of the rock 

 in Dungannon and the other two townships to which reference has been made. Dur- 

 ing 1897 time did not permit of a careful examination of these outcrops, but on the 

 index map of the district published in iny report"' for that year. I outlined these 

 outcrops and stated that the mineral likely occurred in place in these townships. 

 Work during the past season. 1898, has shown that my predictions were correct, 

 as we found corundum in place at several points in Dungannon and in other town- 

 ships to the west. Moreover we have found that the previously mentioned areas 

 of nepheline syenite in Dungannon and Faraday are parts of what is practically 

 one continuotis band of these rocks, but which is in places very narrow, and, there- 

 fore, diflficult to follow. We have also traced this band fifteen or twenty miles 

 farther west, and have connected these outcrops with the belt worked out in 1897. 

 The relations of these outcrops and the different parts of the belt which have now 

 been connected are shown on the map which Mr. Blue has exhibited. 



Since the work with which I was charged was intended to be primarily of an 

 economic nature, and, therefore, more closely connected with prospecting than with 

 geology proper, I have not paid any more attention to the general geology of the 

 district than what was required to enable us to prospect intelligently for the min- 

 eral for which we were in search. Moreover, the working out of the general 

 geology of the district is provided for by the Geological .Survey- of the Dominion, 

 and it seems to me that the work of the Province should be in the nature of apply- 

 ing information supplied from this source and making use of it in the working 

 out of problems which have a direct economic bearing. We already have a fair 

 general knowledge of the geology of the Province in the districts penetrated by 

 and surrounded by our railroads, but the discovery at this late day of an occurrence 

 of a mineral of economic value over such a large area in one of what may be called 

 the older mining and prospected districts shows the possibilities there are <>f 

 finding other economic products in our well-known mineral districts. 



(i) Amr. Jr. Science, 1894, and Annual Report Geological Surv., Can., vol. vi. 1 N.S.) 



(2) Summary Report Geological Sur.,Can., i8g6, vol. 50 A. 



(3) Trans. Roy. Soc, Can., i8go. 



(4) Part iii., 7th Report Bureau of Mines, Ontario. 



