A&N1VEBSABY ADDBESS. 49 



" It is also to be feared that the market suffers by the great 

 consignments made by America, where, for some time, in Penn- 

 sylvania, a considerable lode of copper and nickel has been 

 wrought. In Sardinia also have been recently discovered rich 

 veins in which nickel is associated with cobalt and bismuth ; and 

 I have it from a good authority that they cannot push on too 

 actively the work for fear of a lowering of the price. Up to this 

 time nickel has been derived from mineral veins ; but the New 

 Caledonian variety is rather to be found in bunches, and like all 

 those kinds of deposits has the fault of being discontinuous and 

 irregular. But the ore will only require a simple metallurgical 

 treatment, on account of the elements which compose it being 

 easily eliminated. "Without doubt the mineral ought to be 

 mechanically enriched up to 15 or 20 per cent., in order to utilize 

 as much as possible the deposits, and to have a clear product 

 supporting the cost of carriage ; besides, the price of the ore of 

 nickel, and by the kilogramme of contained metal, rises in pro- 

 portion to the richness of the ore. At 20 per cent, the ore is 

 worth about 2,000 francs per ton in Europe. 



" Before the close of this letter, I would say another word on 

 the gold and the coal. 



" My conviction has never varied as to the presence of vein 

 gold ; it shows itself in all my writings, and I have reason to 

 think that 100 kilometres of the old formations on the N.E-. coast 

 are the receptacle of numerous veins of precious metal and of 

 its companion, copper. 



"As to the coal, the question is more delicate ; however, when 

 I reflect with, the experience I have acquired since I left the 

 island, and when I revise with all the distinctness of recollec- 

 tion the long Carboniferous zone which composes almost every- 

 where the west of the colony, starting from the south at Mont 

 d'Or, I cannot prevent myself from believing that we are there 

 on the shores of an important Coal-sea — shores moved by gigantic 

 displacements produced by the arrival of the different eruptive 

 rocks upon which now repose the Carboniferous formations ; but 



D 



