128 



Miles and amber in colour, it is transparent, so that 

 Kilometres. defects, flaws, or inclusions can be easily 

 seen. It is quite pliable and can be bent 

 into various shapes without cracking. 

 Its chief use is in insulating the parts of 

 electrical machines, and, being incombustible 

 and resistant to decomposition, it is unim- 

 paired by time. Lacking sufficient quantity 

 of large-sized mica to satisfy the demand, the 

 users have now succeeded in building up 

 plates of required sizes from small pieces 

 cemented together with shellac. The result- 

 ing product, called "micanite," has practically 

 all the qualities of the larger pieces of clear 

 mica. The mica used for this purpose is not 

 poor scrap mica, but simply the smaller sizes 

 of the high-grade mica. The still smaller, 

 waste sizes are padded to make boiler cover- 

 ing, or finely ground to a mica flour, which 

 may be used for tempering steel, or as an 

 absorbent for nitro-glycerine in the manu- 

 facture of an explosive called "mica powder," 

 or as a lubricant for wooden bearings, or, 

 mixed with oil, for metal bearings. 



Returning II miles (17-6 km.) towards 

 Kingston, a visit is made to a 

 39 m. Counter's barite vein, which cuts the 



62-4 km. Corners. fiat-lying Ordovician lime- 



stone. At Counter's Corners 

 this vein is from one (3 m.) to four feet 

 (1 -2 m.) wide. It dips vertically, and strikes 

 northwest, and can be picked up at intervals 

 as far as Varty lake, a distance of 14 

 miles (22-4 km.). The limestone is dense 

 and hard, with shaly partings, and its con- 

 tact with the barite is very sharply defined, 

 so that there is no transition from the one 

 into the other. Moreover, along the con- 

 tact is a coating of anthraxolite, and some 

 fiuorite, indicating that the vein had not 

 filled from the surrounding country rocks, 

 but owes its origin to a deep-seated source. 

 Approximately 100 tons have been mined 



