176 A POPULAR EXPOSITION OF THE 
phosphoric acid, which becomes reduced during the process of smelt- 
ing, and usually renders the iron (by the presence of phosphide or phos- 
phuret of iron) “cold-short.” Cold-short iron is more or less brittle, 
and, hence, as a general rule, it is only available for castings. The 
St. Maurice ores are said, however, to yield excellent malleable iron. 
Norr.—As the minerals of this Section (4A 4) present, in many of their varie- 
ties, a somewhat doubtful metallic aspect,* they will be referred to again, under: 
Group C. 
B. Aspect metallic. Hardness insufficient to scratch glass. 
B 1. Malleable or Ductile. 
[Principal Minerals:—Colour yellow: Native Gold. Colour white, with dark 
tarnish: Mative Silver, Colour dark lead-grey: Sulphide of Silver. Colour 
copper-red: Native Copper. | 
Native Gold.—Rich golden-yellow; in small granular or sub- 
crystalline masses, scales, and dust. Sp. gr. varying from about 16.0 
to 19.0. Easily fusible, but otherwise inalterable before the blow- 
pipe. Distinguished by this latter character, and also by its high 
Sp. gr., its malleability, &c., from copper pyrites, iron pyvrites, and 
other substances of a similar aspect. Another salient character, ap- 
plicable more especially to dust gold, is the quality of remaining un- 
affected by nitric acid. In Canada, native gold occurs over a wide 
area (in alluvial sands, &c.) in the metamorphic district south of the 
St. Lawrence, although not in sufficient abundance to cause the regular 
working of the auriferous sands of this district to be remunerative. 
The sands of the following streams and rivers, more particularly, are 
stated by Sir William Logan to contain gold: The Guillaume, Les- 
sard, Bras, Touffe-des-Pins, Du Lac, Famine, Du Loup, Metgermet,. 
and Poser’s stream; with the Chaudiére and St. Francis. These, 
with the exception of the St. Francis, belong chiefly to Beauce Co., 
C.E. Sir William Logan states also, that native gold has been found 
im small quantities in a vein with Specular Iron Ore, in the township 
of Leeds, Megantic Co., C.E. Traces of gold have likewise been 
discovered in the native silver of Prince’s Mine, Lake Superior. (See, 
also, auriferous varieties of Iron Pyrites, A 1; Copper Pyrites, B83; 
* The term “aspect,” as here employed, refers not merely to the “lustre” of the sub- 
' Stance, but to its general appearance and characters, taken together. Thus but few, if any, 
specimens of Bog Iron Ore exhibit a metallic lustre properly so-called ; and yet most persons, 
on taking up one of these specimens, would refer it at once to the metallic group, or, in 
other words, would consider it to be a metallic substance of some kind. 
