64 HOW ON LIMESTONE AND MARBLE. 



several kinds : one of a greenish hue, and among the rest one which 

 is very remarkable. It is of a grey colour and when polished shows 

 concentric waved bands covering the entire surface in beautiful mark- 

 ings. The specimen exhibited had perhaps a square foot of surface 

 and was due to the liberality of Messrs. Wesley & Sanford, who 

 also polished some of the other marbles shown. So far as I know 

 this marble is unique and if it should be found in large slabs of the 

 same character as that which was shewn and excited so much admha- 

 tion there can be no doubt it would be very profitable. Even in small 

 slabs it would be probably prized for inlaying. Cape Breton has 

 large deposits, there are known a white marble with blackish veins, a 

 black with white veins, and a white and deep green variety, which 

 is very handsome. All the specimens at present met with, are from 

 the surface. The deposit of marble which is best known is that at 

 Five Islands, in the Basin of Mines, where it forms large beds in the 

 metamorphic rocks ; the marble is of excellent grain and of a fine 

 white colour, surpassing in beauty, when polished, according to 

 Messrs. Wesley and Sanford, the Italian Marble. It is this which 

 has been to some extent tried as to its value. About 1852 a gentle- 

 man was sent from England with two quarrymen to get out a block. 

 He remained for some months and finally shipped a block of con- 

 siderable size at an expense, it is said, of about £1,000. The ex- 

 plorer is reported to have stated that the marble was superior to any 

 he had seen from Carrara, but on the arrival of the block in England 

 it was pronounced unserviceable from being shattered. This condi- 

 tion of the specimen is considered to have been due, at all events in 

 part, to the block having been got out by blasting, so that this trial 

 may not have determined the real value of the deposit, and I have 

 also heard from a resident in the neighbourhood at the time of 

 quarrying, that more might have been done at the same expense. 

 Even if larger and better conducted operations do not show that 

 large masses can be got out, at least it is probable that smaller blocks 

 suitable for busts and statuettes may be obtained. 



A material may be mentioned here which may prove, imder cer- 

 tain circumstances, a useful substitute for marble, viz : the hard 

 plaster or anhydrite, which is found abundantly, and could probably 

 be obtained in blocks of any useful dimensions. It occurs at Fal- 

 mouth and St. Croix of a white colour, at Windsor of a bluish tint 



