Iron Ores of Canada. 2S 



part of tlie whole mineral wealtli of this important formation. 

 The best known mines are the following : 



1st. The Hull mine, situated five miles from the city of Ottawa, 

 "100 feet in thickness, and containing according to the analj^ses of 

 Mr. Hunt, Chemist to the geological survey 69.65 per cent, or in- 

 round numbers YO per cent of pure iron. "When this bed of ore 

 was supposed to be only 20 feet in thickness. Sir "W. E. Logan 

 estimated that it would yield for every fathom forward and 

 downward fi-om fifty to sixty tons of pure metal. Report of 1845-6, 

 page 76. But this bed is now ascertained to be 100 feet, (more 

 of it being at present exposed by the process of mining) and con- 

 sequently the yield will be five times as great, or from 250 to 300 

 tons per fathom. The distance to which it may be worked cannot 

 be ascertained. As a general thing, veins of ore have never been 

 traced to their termination, no doubt this bed underlies the country 

 for many miles in one continuous sheet. It is not a vein filling up 

 a perpendicular fissure in the earth's crust but a bed lying between 

 the strata of the formation. Where it is exposed, it forms a dome 

 and dips aways in all direction. How for it extends cannot be 

 ascertained, but granting that 500 fathoms is its limit each way, 

 then, it would contain 250,000,000 of tons of pure iron. 



2nd. The Crosby Mine. — This bed is said to be nearly 200 

 feet thick:, and should its }neld be as great in proportion as that 

 of the Hull mine, it would contain in a supei-ficial area of 1,000 

 fathoms, 500,000,000 of tons of pure iron. This enormous bulk 

 of metal can scarcely be comprehended. Were the whole iron 

 mining force of Great Britain and the United States at work for 

 one hundred years upon such a deposit, they would not, at their 

 present rate of production, exhaust it. 



3rd. South Sherhroolce. — ^There is in this Township a bed 60 

 feet in thickness, and its probable contents, according to the above 

 .estimates, are 100,000,000 of tons of pure iron. 



4th, McNah. — This mine consists of the specular oxyde of iron. 

 The bed is 25 feet thick, and contains perhaps 50,000,000 of tons 

 to the 1,000 fathoms square. It is situated about one mile from 

 the village of Amprior, 30 miles fr-om the City of Ottawa, and 

 in the midst of an abundance of water-power. 



6th. The beds fi'om which the Marmora Iron Works are sup- 

 plied, may be estimated as containing 100,000,000 of tons. 



We have, therefore, in the above five beds, in round numbers, 

 '1,000,000,000 of tons— a quantity sufficient to jield 1,000 tons 



