On the Minerals of Canada. 61 



600 acres. It is underlaid by peat, the fuel sufficiently well 

 adapted to prepare it for the market. This and many other loca- 

 ties in Lower Canada, as well as in Upper Canada, contain inex- 

 haustible quantities of ochre, some of excellent quality and of a 

 gre; t variety of colours. 



Steatite or soap stone, composed of flint and magnesia, possesses 

 many singular properties which are gradually introducing the ma- 

 terial into notice and use. It is generally soft to the touch, scarce- 

 ly affected by acids, and little changed by exposure to intense 

 heat, — In Maryland a steatite or soap-stone company exists, and 

 manufactures a surprising number of articles for economical pur- 

 poses. In addition to the properties before enumerated, the re- 

 markable ease with which steatite is worked by common carpen- 

 ters' tools, render it an object admirably adapted for may opera- 

 tions to which other materials are not applicable. A substance 

 almost indestructible by fire and many strong acids, and so soft as 

 to admit of being turned, bored, screwed together and planed, is- 

 well worthy of attention. 



In Canada it is found and used as a refractory stone in the 

 township of Yaudreuil, Beauce, Wotton and Ireland \ it exists also 

 in Sutton, Bolton and Melbourne ; it also exists in the township of 

 Leeds and Stanstead, where it is ground and employed as a paint.. 



The brief and necessarily imperfect sketch I have now given of 

 the most important minerals hitherto found in Canadian rocks may 

 serve to convey a tolerable impression of what our country offers' 

 to mining enterprise and industry. We must, however, in justice to 

 that large extent of territory which constitutes our main mineral 

 region, bear in mind that it is, in great part, still an uncultivated 

 and but partially explored wilderness. 



It was said by one, far above his fellowmen in acquirements, 

 and in the additions he had made to human knowledge, that when 

 at the close of a long life,, he contemplated the work he had done,. 

 " he seemed like a child to have been gathering pebbles on the sea 

 shore, with the vast ocean of truth lying unexplored before him." 

 We may, with some semblance of propriety, apply this beautiful 

 simile to our present acquaintance with the stores of inert wealth 

 which lie hidden in the rocks of the unsettled parts of our country. 

 Although the information which has been given to the world by the 

 geological commission is of the highest national value, and in 



