PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTR. 21 



for half a mile. The whole surface, as far as I examined it. wa.^ thickly strewn 

 with small crystals of corundum, ranging in color from pearl to blue; but here 

 and there parts of it were altered into white mica. A sample of it. assayed for me 

 under the direction of Dr. Coleman., carried nearly lo per cent, of corundum, and 

 w^as remarkably free from iron. An ore of this character ought to be well suited 

 for the production of aluminium, especially as the ncpheline itself, the gangue rock, 

 contains about 30 per cent, of alumina. 



Here it may be remarked that, owing to the presence of iron and other impuri- 

 ties, makers of aluminium assert that native corundum is unsuited for the produc- 

 tion of that metal. But it is safer to keep an open mind on problems of this 

 nature. When one reflects that by the adoption of new and improved processes 

 the cost of producing aluminium has been reduced, within forty years, from its 

 weight in gold to 30 cents per pound or less, one ought not to assume that it is 

 impossible to find a process for producing pure corundum at low cost, if not a 

 process to make aluminium out of an impure ore. Professor DeKalb. of the 

 Kingston School of Mining, was able last winter, with a small experimental plant, 

 to extract corundum (99.61 per cent, pure) from rock that carried five per cent, of 

 magnetic iron ore. What, then, might be expected from a large and well-equipped 

 plant, capable of treating 50 or 100 tons per day. supplied with every device that 

 the wit of man can invent, and especially with a good quality of rock to work 

 upon ? In one particular the Ontario mineral appears to differ from tlie mineral 

 of the Appalachian belt; the gangue is brittle, and is easily broken up and separated 

 from the corundum. 



It will certainly add greatly to the value of the corundum deposits of Ontario 

 if they can be used in producing aluminium as well as the material for abrasives, if 

 the history of that metal during the last ten years is a fair index of its future. In 

 the ten years ending with 1897 its production in the United States has risen from 

 19,000 pounds, valued at $3.42 per pound, to 4.000,000 pounds, valued at 2)7^/-2 cents 

 per pound; and so much progress in so short a time seems to be ample justifi- 

 cation for the statement of Professor Richards, made three years ago in the preface 

 to his admirable book on aluminium: "The abundance of aluminium in nature, 

 the purity of its ores, its wonderful lightness and adaptability to numerous pur- 

 poses, indicate that the goal of the aluminium industry will be reached only when 

 this metal ranks next to iron in its usefulness to mankind." 



None of the discoveries hitherto made in Ontario seem to encourage the hope 

 that gem varieties of the corundum are to be found, although in some localities 

 an occasional crystal is to be seen with qualities not unlike sapphire, being semi- 

 translucent and of bluish color. Perhaps, if search were made in the crystalline 

 limestones, it might be rewarded with better success; not that corundum of any 

 quality has yet been found in the limestones, but because their relations to the 

 gneiss are not dissimilar to those which obtain in Burma. When the source of 

 the limestones has been worked out, it may be shown that, like those of Burma, 

 they have been derived by metamorphosis from the felspar of the gneiss, or per- 

 haps from the felspar of the syenite: and if so. the analogy would suggest that 

 these rocks are worth prospecting for corundum in some of its more valuable forms. 

 In a note received from Professor Miller on this subject, he says: — 



'■ It is quite possible that corundum may yet be found in considerable quan- 

 tity in crystalline limestone in Ontario, as in India and Burma. In India the min 

 eral occurs under various conditions in metamorphic (limestones, etc.). and igneous 

 rocks. Of course there need be no connection between the occurrence of the min- 

 eral in these two classes of rocks. If corundum occurs in our crystalline lime- 

 stones, it is of a different origin from that occurring in the igneous rocks (the 

 syenites)." 



