138 GILPIN — IKON ORES IN PICTOU COUNTY. 



quarried a considerable quantity of red haematite from the Blancliard 

 bed, and collected many tons of drift limonite on the banks of the 

 East River. A blast furnace was erected at the Albion Mines for 

 the purpose of smelting these ores, but the experiment was not 

 satisfactory. 



I am unable to get precise information on the subject ; but it can 

 be readily understood that at that date a man accustomed to 

 English fuel and ores could easily fail in smelting, when introduced 

 to fuels and ores of a totally different character. This is borne out 

 by the appearance of the iron made before the furnace was closed 

 by scaffolding. The failure of the Association to discover the 

 limonite in situ, caused them to totally abandon the idea of repeat- 

 ing the experiment. 



From 1830 up to 1870 several accidental discoveries of ore 

 were made in the district, but no work was done to ascertain their 

 value, and it was not until the recent expansion in the iron trade 

 that the question of the profitable smelting of iron ore in Pictou 

 County again came up. 



In 1873 extensive explorations, extending from Glengary on the 

 Intercolonial Railway to French River, were conducted under Dr. 

 Dawson's superintendence ; while I was at the same time engaged in 

 testing the property of the Albion Mines company at Springville, 

 already mentioned as the scene of a former unsuccessful search. The 

 following season I took up the work where Dr. Dawson left it, and 

 the results of our explorations constitute all that is practically 

 known about the district. 



Beginning at French River, we have first to notice a large 

 deposit of clay iron stone in strata of Lower Carboniferous age. 

 The beds vary from one to eight feet in thickness, and occupy a 

 vertical height of several hundred feet. I am not aware of any 

 analysis having been made of this ore ; from its appearance and 

 specific gravity, it is certainly equal to the average of its class. 

 Phillips in his treatise on Metallurgy, gives the percentage of 

 metallic iron in Yorkshire and Staffordshire clay ironstones, as 

 varying from twenty-eight to forty per cent. 



The Carboniferous Conglomerate at one or two places in this 



