The Apatite Deposits of Canada. 71 



variable, and the same vein in a distance of a few hundred feet 

 will sometimes diminish from eight or ten feet to a few inches. 

 We have already noticed the variable nature of the contents of 

 these veins, which are sometimes filled with with solid and pure 

 apatite, and at other times present bands or layers of this 

 mineral, with others chiefly of calcite, of pyroxene crystals, 

 or of a magnesian mica, occasionally mined for commercial 

 purposes. While these veins have yielded in many cases con- 

 siderable amounts of apatite, they have not the persistency of the 

 beds. Their study presents many interesting facts in para- 

 genesis, wb ich I have described in detail in the report of the 

 geological survey for 1866, already quoted, and more briefly in 

 my Chemical and Geological Essays (pp. 208-213). 



It is worthy of remark, that some of the first attempts at 

 mining apatite in Canada were upon these veins, and that their 

 irregularities contributed not a little to the discouragement which 

 followed the early trials. The larger part of the productive 

 workings are upon the bedded deposits. These, however, as 

 already noticed, are for the most part opened only by shallow 

 pits ; a condition of things which is explained by the peculiar 

 character and the frequency of the deposits, and also by the 

 economic value of the apatite. This mineral, unlike most 

 ordinary ores, is, in its crude state, a merchantable article of 

 considerable value, and finds a ready sale at all times, even in 

 small lots of five or ten tons. Like wheat, it can be converted 

 into ready money, at a price which generally gives a large return 

 for the labor expended in its extraction. Hence it is that 

 farmers and other persons, often with little or no knowledge of 

 miniDg, have, in a great number of places throughout the dis- 

 trict described, opened pits and trenches for the purpose of 

 extracting apatite, and at first with very satisfactory results. 

 So soon, however, as the openings are carried to depths at which 

 the process becomes somewhat difficult from the want of ap- 

 p liances for hoisting the materials mined, or from the inflow 

 of surface-waters, which in wet seasons fill the open cuts, the 

 workings are abandoned for fresh outcrops, never far off. In 

 this way a lot of 100 acres will sometimes show five, ten or more 

 pits, often on as many beds, from twelve to twenty feet deep; each 

 of which may have yielded one or more hundred tons of apatite, 



