PROCEEDINGS OF THR CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



23 



Notes on Prospecting for Corundum. Bv Willet G. Miller, M.A., 

 School of Mining, Kingston. 



(Read loth December, 1S9S, in discussion on Mr. Blue's paper.) 



When I first received instructions from the Director of the Bureau of Mines 

 to make an examination of the occurrence of corundum in the township of Carlow, 

 reported by Mr. W. F. Ferrier, of tlic Cicological Survey,'" 1 was not very enthusi- 

 astic over the prospect, especially as I was expected to search for other outcrops 

 of the mineral. The district is situated rather near at hand to the chief cities and 

 older settled parts of the Province, and, moreover, it occurs in a region whichi has 

 attn.cted considerable attention from prospectors an.l miners during the last 3^ 

 or 40 years. It thus appeared to mc that there could not bj very much of the 

 material in place in the district or some one would have noticed its existence 

 years before. However, as my instructions authorized me to make notes on any 

 other economic minerals which might be met with in the field, I thought that if 

 I could, not find more corundum I could at least get enough material for a report 

 and spend my time to advantage in directing attention to some of the other 

 numerous ore bodies which are to be found in Eastern Ontario. 



For the first week after entering the field the outlook for the discovery of 

 other occurrences of the mineral was not very promising. The district is a rather 

 rough one, and the rocks are covered to a considerable extent by soil and timber, 

 and the part of the field in which we first started to work happens to be cut through 

 by two large river channels. Having once obtained the key to the mode of distri- 

 bution of the deposits it was chiefly then only a matter of time and work to find 

 other deposits. Drift deposits assisted us much in prospecting. In every case. I 

 think, where we found lioulders of rock carrying corundum we found the mineral 

 in place a few miles to the northward in thie direction from which the glaciers had 

 come. We also soon became familiar with the different varieties of the rock whicli 

 belonged to the same magma as the corundum-bearing variety, and knew how 

 these dififerent varieties shaded off into one another and into the corundum-bear 

 ing variety. We could generally tell when we were approaching the latter variety 

 from the character of the other rocks. We also, of course, made use of the strike 

 and other characteristics of these rocks. 



The work on which we were engaged differed materially from ordinary geo- 

 logical field work. In the latter case one does not need to examine every hundred 

 acres, nor in most cases every square mile or so. A fair outline ol the geology 

 of a district can generally be given by following the roads or canoe routes. 



In the part of the field in which we worked in 1897 the outcrops of corundum 

 rock occur in isolated areas. This made our work more difiicult. as. being engaged 

 in examining lands of which the mineral right in most cases belonged to the Gov- 

 ernment, we were anxious that no good deposits should escape us. It was as 

 important for the Government to know where these deposits were situated, as it 

 would have been for any private company which might have controlled the lands. 

 A rather foresighted policy had been inaugurated in connection with the cornnrlum 



(I) Summary Report Geological Surv., Can , :«</), page 116. 



