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[Assembly 
the mines yet discovered. Disseminated in the matrix is a white, 
earthy substance, which appears to be a mixture of earthy carbo- 
nate of lead and lime; it is generally caWed puiiy by the miners, and 
is considered as a sure indication of galena. The ore at the Rossie 
mine, is very beautiful, sometimes it occurs in large cubic crystals, 
modified on the solid angles by replacements, or it is in a granular 
form, with a white silvery lustre. The clevage of the large crys- 
tals furnish splendent surfaces, like polished steel; in fact, nothing 
of the mineral kind exceeds it in beauty, or equals it in lustre. 
Other forms, as the regular octohedron and dodecahedron, are quite 
common. The large crystals are confined to one portion of the 
vein, called by the miners, a water course. The country known 
as the Rossie hills, in which these mines are situated, is a broken 
region, elevated 150 or 200 feet above the St. Lawrence; these 
hills are primitive, being composed of gneiss, hornblende, and 
limestone. The most remarkable features of the gneiss, are the 
contortions of its strata; these it is impossible to describe without 
the aid of diagrams. The existence of the lead in thin veins, and 
widely dispersed over this hilly region, is an unfavorable feature 
for the mining operations of this district. It is conjectured by 
some, though it is nothing more than conjecture, that the veins 
may come together deep in the interior of the earth. Was there 
sufficient evidence of this concentration below, undoubtedly there 
is enough boldness among the capitalists to rhk the sinking of a 
shaft to intersect them. 
As mining is a new business in this country, it will be sometime 
before we shall be in the possession of facts and principles to en- 
able us to reduce it to a system; yet there are common indications 
at all the deposites of lead and copper, which are soon learnt, but 
we have yet to learn what is to be expected from a thin seam of 
ore, when it comes to the surface under a certain variety of cir- 
cumstances, and this knowledge can be obtained only by the pro- 
secution of mining, and observing and recording all the phenomena 
met with in its progress. 
The account of the ores of iron, in the northern district, has 
been drawn up by Mr. Hall, who, during the past season, gave 
much of his attention to them; his account, therefore, together 
with his remarks of a general character, it is believed, will be in- 
teresting and useful to those engaged in the manufacture of iron. 
