Warren — llmenite Rocks near St. Urbain, Quebec. 263 



Art. XXV. — The llmenite Rocks near St. Urbain, Quebec; 

 A New Occurrence of Rutile and Sapphirine / by Charles 

 H. Warren. 



Introductory. — One of the notable occurrences of ilmenite, 

 mentioned in treatises on mineralogy, is that near Bay St. 

 Paul, a town located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence 

 River, about sixty miles east of Quebec. This occurrence is 

 more accurately located as being just west of the little village 

 of St. Urbain in the parish of that name, which is located about 

 ten miles north of Bay St. Paul on the Piver G-ouffre. In the 

 Geology of Canada, 1863, Dr. T. S. Hunt gives a brief descrip- 

 tion of this occurrence. He states that the ilmenite bodies are 

 " intercalated in the stratification " of the anorthosite rock in 

 which they occur. One bed, 90 feet thick, was traced for a 

 distance of 300 feet, and was reported continuous for over a 

 mile. Writing further, he states, u it contains in many parts 

 orange-red transparent grains of pure titanic acid." The 

 density is given as from 4*56 to 4*66. A chemical analysis 

 gave : TiO 2 c 48*60 ; Fe 2 3 , 10*42 ; FeO, 37*06 ; MgO, 3*6. Total, 

 99*68. Just what type of ore this analysis represents is not 

 stated, but assuming it to be a fairly correct analysis, the molec- 

 ular ratio derived from it indicates that it was made on rutile- 

 free material. The presence of the rutile appears to have 

 been practically forgotten, at least no other mention of it 

 occurs in the literature so far as the writer is aware. Its pres- 

 ence in the ilmenite was again noted in the summer of 1909 

 by Dr. W. P. Whitney of Schenectady, IN. Y., while on a visit 

 to the locality, and it was through the latter's interest in the 

 deposit that the writer had an opportunity of visiting the 

 locality in the spring of 1910. A representative collection of 

 material was made at that time with the expectation of later 

 using it for a thorough study of this unusual rock. A more 

 careful examination of the material in the laboratory showed 

 it to be more unusual in character than was at first supposed, 

 but, unfortunately, it was also found that the material had 

 suffered so much from alteration that it has been thought best 

 to defer any exhaustive chemical study in the hope that fresher 

 material may eventually be obtained, when it is also hoped 

 that further details regarding the extent of the rutile-bearing 

 portions may be also available. 



The Enclosing Anorthosite. — Like so many other occur- 

 rences of ilmenite the containing rock of the St. Urbain deposits 

 is an anorthosite. The extent of the anorthosite area in the 

 present instance is not known, but it appears to be a large one, 

 and may be, as was believed by Hunt, continuous with the 



