294 [November, 1902.] 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
Vol. VIII. No. 95- 
Economic Features . — Starting from the south end of the island, the first productive 
district is Skerrit Mountain, where, in 1897, was made one of the first locations of copper- 
gold ore recorded on the island. Tire ore body has a maximum width of about four feet, and 
occurs in shoots. The one on which most development has been done is 90 feet in length. 
The ore mined from it to a depth of 60 feet was shipped to the Tacoma smelter during the 
year 1900, and yielded from 12 to 15 percent, of copper, about 7 oz, of silver, and $1 of gold 
to the ton. The next productive portion of the island is that known as the Mount Sicker 
district, in which are located the “ Leonora,” “ Tyee,” and other mineral claims. ‘The 
former has shipped in all about 35,000 tons of ore, and the latter has mined 60,000 tons. The 
ore is chalcopyrite in a gangue containing barytes, garnet, quartz, and pyrites. The grade 
averages $5 per ton of gold, 5 per cent, of copper, and variable silver values. These ore 
bodies are lenticular in structure, and occur interfoliated between schists with their lines of 
strike conformable to the schistosity of the rock, but apparently not conformable to the 
original bedding planes. The schistosity has been caused apparently through shearing move- 
ments resulting from the intrusion of dykes, and convulsions of the earth’s crust. Travelling 
north from Mount Sicker, the coal measures are met with within a comparatively short distance, 
and extend northwards a distance of about 75 miles. There are collieries located at Extension, 
Alexandria, Nanaimo, Harewood, Wellington, and Union. All of these collieries, with the 
exception of the original Wellington colliery, are now producing bituminous coal, and a good 
quality of coke is being made at Comox. In the southern portion of this coalfield there are 
two workable seams. The upper seam, designated the Douglass, is mined at the Nanaimo 
and Alexandria collieries, whilst the lower only is mined at the old Wellington and Extension 
collieries, in which portions of the field the upper seam has been carried off by erosion. The 
most northerly productive area is along the shore of Quatsino Sound, where occur enormous 
outcrops of copper ore, which have been worked to a small extent. The known deposits of 
magnetite occur on the Gordon River, which empties into San Juan Harbour, on the Serita 
River, at Copper Island, and on the Sechart Peninsula. The workable deposits have been 
exploited during the past two or three years with a view of shipping the ore to the Irondale 
furnace, in the State of Washington, for manufacture into pig iron. From the facts stated 
some idea can be obtained of the possibilities of the mineral resources of Vancouver 
Island when thoroughly exploited and developed. 
CORUNDUM DEPOSITS IN THE UNITED STATES. 
A recent number of this Journal (Vol. vm. p. 1S1), contains an account of the 
Corundum deposits of Ontario, and the processes involved in the concentration of the ore and 
the preparation of raw corundum for the market. The following is a summary of a report, 
by Mr. J. Pratt ( Bulletin 1S0 of the United States Geological Survey), which deals with the 
occurrence and distribution of corundum in North Carolina and Georgia, and will serve as a 
supplement to the information contained in the previous article. 
The corundum localities of the United States are, with the exception of those in 
Montana, Colorado, and California, limited to the Appalachian region, where, although the 
mineral is known to exist at points throughout nearly the entire length, mining has been 
Confined to a narrow section of the southern portion. 
There are three names in constant use to designate the varieties of corundum : 
(1) Sapphire, which includes all corundums that are transparent to semi-transparent; 
(2) Corundum, including the translucent to opaque varieties of all colours ; (3) Emery, which 
is a mechanical mixture of corundum and magnetite or liEematite. The last two varieties arc 
those used in the arts for abrasive purposes, emery being used in much larger quantities than 
corundum. 
Although any corundum that is transparent is included under the head of sapphires, 
many of these have distinct names in the gem trade; e.g ., the blue, red, green, yellow, and 
purple sapphires, are known respectively as the oriental sapphire, ruby, emerald, topaz, 
Rnd amethyst. There are also pink and white varieties. 
Corundum used for abrasive purposes occurs as sand, crystal, or gravel and block 
corundum. The first-named is composed of fragments of the mineral diffused through the 
vein. The crystal variety of corundum, as the name implies, consists of crystals which vary 
in length up to three inches, and which arc often so well developed that in crushing they 
break up into regular rhombohedra. This regular breaking destroys the cutting efficiency 
of the corundum, for irregular fractures produce the best cutting edges. The block variety 
often occurs in masses, from 10 to 1,000 pounds in weight, of almost pure corundum and also 
intimately associated with hornblende, felspar, etc., making a rock which is tough and 
difficult to work. 
The North Carolina locality which, at the present time, is attracting most attention as a 
source of corundum gems, is the tract of land between the Caler Fork of Cowee Creek and 
Mason Branch, tributaries of the Little Tennessee River. In the gravels of this valley ruby 
corundum has been found for a distance of three miles. The richest gravels were usually 
found covered by soil averaging about three feet in depth, and resting on a soft rock known 
as saprolite. The rubies are separated by hydraulic processes similar to those employed 
for washing gold-bearing gravels. 
The prevailing rock of the district is gneiss of a grey fine-grained variety, throughout 
which a large number of garnets are distributed. It: is mostly in a decomposed condition, 
although in washing the gravels and masses of saprolite, undecomposed rock has been 
uncovered, containing nodules of pure hornblende. The saprolite bordering these nodules 
often contains crystals of corundum. 
In the neighbourhood of Betts Gap ol Lhe Co wee Mountains, corundum of a grey to a 
bluish colour but highly crystalline, exists in hornblende-gneiss, and a pink variety has been 
found in amphibolic schist. 
The Cowee Creek rubies frequently contain inclusions such as rutile and menaecanite, 
which give rise to a cloudiness or sheen in the polished gem. Some large gems and a great 
number of small ones have been cut, which in colour and brilliancy are equal to the 
Burma ruby. 
Under the head of corundum — -the variety used for abrasive purposes — are included all 
the translucent to opaque varieties, sub-divided into block, crystal, and sand corundums. 
The mineral has been mined very extensively in Macon County, North Carolina, on the 
southern face of a hill situated about eight miles from Franklin. The formation consists of 
the dunite variety of peridotite and the largest veins of corundum follow the contact of this 
d unite with gneiss. The veins running within the peridotite rock do not, as a rule, extend 
far. On the north-east side of the formation a bench of ore twenty-five feet in depth, and 
two to five feet in width, was exposed, which consisted of nearly one-half corundum. 
From the mines in this locality, block, crystal, and sand corundum ores have been 
obtained, all of which can be readily made into a commercial product, suitable for the 
manufacture of any kind of emery wheel. 
Georgia corundum is well known and makes a good commercial product. The mining 
localities are not so numerous, nor are the peridotite formations so extensive as in North 
Carolina. The Laurel Creek mine, situated at Pine Mountain, Rabun County, has produced 
a considerable quantity of corundum, which also occurs in large veins at the junction of the 
peridotite with gneiss. 
A HYDRAULIC MINING CARTRIDGE. 
The Benjamin Shaw prize for industrial hygiene has been awarded this year by the 
Council of the Society of Arts to Mr, James Tonge, junr., M.I. M.E., of Westhoughton, 
Lancashire, for the Tonge patent hydraulic cartridge, an appliance which obviates the use of 
explosives in the working of coal, and in a recent number of the Society’s Journal [Journ. 
Soc. Arts, Vol. L., p. 805) a description of the apparatus is furnished, together with 
particulars of its working. 
The use of explosives in coal mines must always be a possible source of danger, since 
their employment is not only the chief cause of explosions in the workings, but also gives rise 
to many other minor accidents, such as those due to the handling of the explosive and the 
falls of roof or sides brought about by the firing. Apart from the deaths caused by big 
explosions, from 60 to 100 men lose their lives annually owing to accidents with explosives, 
and the fatalities due to falls are sometimes as high as 60 or 70 per cent, of the total. The 
Hydraulic Mining Cartridge has been designed to supply a method of working coal without 
the use of explosives, and it is claimed that, in addition to the safety thereby obtained, many 
other advantages are gained over the present system. 
The cartridge consists of a steel cylinder, 20 ins. long by 3 ins. in diameter, divided into 
eight transverse chambers in each of which a small duplex ram is fitted. The chambers of 
the cylinder communicate with one another so that the rams work simultaneously, and by 
means of a special contrivance the distance to which each ram can be driven outwards is 
much greater than the diameter of the cylinder would appear to allow. The apparatus is 
worked by a small hydraulic pump of special design whereby water is forced into the 
chambers of the cylinder, consequently driving out the rams, which can be made to give 
a pressure of 3 tons per square inch or a total pressure of over 60 tons. This has been found 
quite adequate in all ordinary cases, and the standard sizes are designed for this pressure, 
but special cartridges could be easily made to suit any requirement. The water required 
for the whole operation is about i h pints, but most of this returns to the water tank of the 
pump at the conclusion and can be again used. 
The practical working of the apparatus is extremely simple. After the coal has been 
undercut, a hole of 3} ins. diameter and from 3 to 4 feet deep is drilled, in the usual way, 
parallel to the roof and as nearly as possible along the parting at winch the coal usually 
comes away, or just below this point. The cartridge, with the pump attachment and one or 
more thin ‘ liners’ to prevent the rams cutting into the coal, is then pushed to the back of 
the hole and the pressure is gradually increased until fully on. The effect of this is speedily 
demonstrated by the rumbling and cracking of the coal, which is allowed to continue until the 
back portion is broken off, after which the pressure is brought to hear at the front until the 
whole has been loosened. The whole process occupies about 10 minutes, and one man with 
a single cartridge can carry out 25 to 30 such operations per shift, or say 150 per week. The 
working cost is much the same as for an equal number of ‘ shots ’ using explosives, but in 
practice the hydraulic cartridge has been found to bring down more coal per hole than when 
explosives have been used and, in addition, the coal obtained is larger and not so much 
shattered, so that it does not break up to the same extent during transit. The results of 
practical tests extending over the last two years show that the adoption of the new method 
has increased the yield of large coal by at least 10 per cent., and from some seams an increase 
of 15 per cent, or more has been obtained, thereby adding considerably to the value of the 
coal. 
The cartridges have been tried for over two years at several Lancashire collieries, and the 
results have been so successful that the use of explosives has been entirely abandoned at the 
mines owned by the Hutton Colliery Co. Ltd., where over 1,400 men are employed under- 
ground and where formerly 1,000 explosive shots were fired weekly. As an illustration of 
the work accomplished here iL may be mentioned that during 1901 four machines were at 
work in one mine, and in that time 19,000 ‘shots’ (as they are still called) were made, 
yielding 40,000 tons of coal, while in another case where a single machine w r as in operation 
300 ‘ shots’ were made, bringing down 600 Lons of coal. The machines have proved capable 
of continual usage without damage and, in the light of the results indicated, they may be 
considered a practical success, while the introduction of the system has also resulted in a 
distinct financial gain to the management. 
THE RECLAMATION OF ALKALI LAND. 
Attention has already been directed in this Journal on several occasions to schemes 
which have been suggested for the reclamation of the alkali or usar lands of India. A 
similar problem is presented by the arid regions of the Western and Southern portions of the 
United States of America, where enormous tracts of land, such as that known as the Great 
Interior Basin, comprising practically the whole of Nevada with portions of Utah, Idaho, 
Washington, Montana, Oregon, and California, are practically uncultivated, owing to the 
presence in the soil of an excessive amount of soluble salts. Such lands are, of course, the 
result of a small rainfall, there being no other natural means of gradually removing the 
soluble rock constituents occurring in virgin soil. There are a few plants which grow on 
such land, but none of these possess any economic importance, and so considerable interest 
attaches to the suggestions made by Dr. II. Myers, at a recent meeting of the New York 
section of the Society of Chemical Industry, that it is possible under certain conditions to 
cultivate beet-rooL on alkali soils [Journ. Soc, Chetn. Ind., June 30, 1902, p. 834). The 
experiments from which the author deduces this conclusion, were carried out in West 
Weber, Utah, which has a particularly bad reputation, and has no natural means of 
irrigation. Artesian wells were first bored in order to obtain a sufficient supply of water. 
The latter contained, in the three wells used, from *0435 to '0448 per cent, of total solids, 
The following table gives a synopsis of the chief results obtained in the course of the 
experiments : — 
Original 
Composition 
of Soil. 
Sugar obtained 
from Beets 
grown on this Soil. 
Sal ts 
Present. 
Surface 
Foot. 
Second 
Foot. 
Plot I. 
Plot 11 . 
Lbs per 
Acre. 
Lbs. per 
Acre. 
Per cent. 
Per cent. 
Carbonates 
Chlorides . 
Sulphates . 
Nitrates . 
128 
560 
120 
2,160 
360 
3,000 
80 
Average weight of 
Beet 44 oz. , contain- 
ing I4'8 per cent, 
of Sugar. 
’ Average weight of 
Beet 3c oz., contain- 
ing I4'i per cent, 
of Sugar. 
Composition 
of Plot I. 
after removal 
of Beets. 
Composition 
of PloL 11 . 
after removal 
of Beets. 
Composition 
of Beet-root 
Ash. 
Surface 
Surface 
Lbs. per Acre. 
lbs. per Acre, 
lbs. per Acre. 
Plot 1 . 
Plot 11 . 
1,200 
204 
547 
36-2 
360 
80 
64*9 
24*2 
240 
80 
68-6 
417 
So 
12 
— - 
— 
An examination of this table shows that in the case of Plot I., a considerable rise of 
alkali from the sub-surface soil occurred, whilst in Plot II. this phenomenon is observed to a 
much less extent, so that an actual decrease in the soluble soil constituents takes place. 
The only difference in the method of cultivation of the two plots lay in the application 
of water, Plot 1 . being irrigated with a limited supply of water, no provision being made for 
