surely his experience justifies him in so doing,) that were a furnace Smelting with specially built for the purpose, and so high as to allow the materials wood. fifty hours to descend, wood could be used as fuel, and five tons of

iron produced daily. His estimate of the cost of doing this is as follows:

:

This is equal to $12 per ton of iron produced, and if the freight to Belleville be added, the total cost is $16 per ton. With cast iron at $26, the profit would be $10 per ton. An impression has always prevailed in smelting the magnetic ores of the district, that the operation would be rendered less difficult by the admixture of soft ore, that is, of bog ore or hematite. There is, in all likelihood, some foundation for this opinion, and if so, there ought to be no obstacle to the success of smelting in Madoc, where, besides the excellent ore of the Seymour bed, the hematite on the twelfth lot of range five is casily procurable. In future attempts at smelting in Madoc the course to be adopted would resemble somewhat that proposed in the case of Marmora. Owing to the purity of the Madoc ore a roasting could however be altogether dispensed with.

On general grounds it would seem reasonable to suppose, that when properly conducted, the same success would attend the iron manufacture in Madoc and Marmora, as has attended it in other countries where similar conditions exist. In Sweden and Norway, as in Canada, the ores are generally magnetic, the fuel charcoal, the motive power water, the means of transport and communication imperfect; labour is certainly cheaper, but the orcs are less rich (33 per cent. being the average in Norway.) The same conditions as to ore, fuel, etc., obtain in New York, where the smelting of iron ores seem to be very successful; and if care be taken to employ the same skill, and with due care and judgment, the same apparatus and processes which are there applied, with perhaps slight modifications, iron would doubtless be as successfully

made in Canada as in New York. The protective duty in the latter country is to a great extent balanced by the higher prices for labour and fuel.

V. EXPORT OF IRON ORE.

Shipping ore.

The fact of the existence of a most extensive trade in iron ore between the south shore of Lake Superior and the lake cities, and also between the latter and Lake Champlain, has frequently caused attempts to be made to bring the Canadian ores to the same market. From information which I have gathered, it would appear that the demand for ore from Lake Superior has greatly diminished lately, and that the quantity shipped last summer was not more than one third of the quantity of the previous year. This, however, would not so materially affect the export of ore from Canada as might at first be supposed. The magnetic ores from Canada would not compete with the hematites from Lake Superior. They are required rather for mixing with the latter, and are a substitute for the magnetic ore of Lake Champlain. It must not however be supposed that every magnetic ore from Canada would serve as such a substitute. Besides being of such a character as to smelt readily with the Lake Superior ore, it must be free from all impurities, and especially from iron pyrites. Various ores containing such impurities have been shipped from Canada, and rejected at Cleveland. Ores containing even a small quantity of iron pyrites cannot be used there, because they have no apparatus or conveniences there for roasting. Ores from Canada must therefore be thoroughly free from iron pyrites, or else thoroughly well roasted before shipment. As to whether the ores of this district would be found suitable for the smelting furnaces of the United States, this can only be ascertained by actual trial. But there appears no reason to doubt that the larger number of them would answer. A large proportion of the ore from the Big ore bed of Belmont would be useless, unless it were first thoroughly well roasted at the mine. But the purest ore from it, as well as most of the other workable deposits, and especially from the Seymour ore bed, would doubtless find a ready market. The price paid recently for

The magnetic ores of the Laurentian region, on the western shore of Lake Champlain, are extensively mined, and according to reliable data, now furnish about 300,000 tons of ore yearly. Of this about 100,000 tons are smelted in the district, and 200,000 tons exported to various parts. Much of the ore is shipped to Pittsburg, Penn., and it is also taken as far as Rhode Island and Virginia. The price of the ore at the ports on Lake Champlain is now, in 1866, from five to seven dollars the ton, American currency, the variation depending upon the quality of the ore.

T. S. H.

Champlain ore, delivered at Cleaveland, was $10 per ton, American Shipping ore. currency, and pure Canadian magnetic ore would bring almost as much. The Lake Superior ore only brings $7.50 per ton, American currency. Assuming $6.50 in gold as the value of a ton of pure Canadian ore, and also assuming that railway communication were established with the front, many of the ores of the district could doubtless be worked for exportation with much advantage. The cost, under such circumstances, of bringing a ton of ore from the principal deposits of the district, to Cleaveland, could scarcely be more than as follows:

A balance would therefore remain of $1.50 per ton of ore.

I remain, Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

Actonvale, C. E., Decr. 14, 1865.

THOMAS MACFARLANE.

REPORT

OF

THOMAS MACFARLANE, ESQ.

ADDRESSED TO

SIR W. E. LOGAN, F. R. S., F. G. S..

DIRECTOR OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,

SIR,

In the month of June last I was honored with your instructions to make an examination of the east shore of Lake Superior, to ascertain the line of division between the Laurentian and Huronian rocks there, and to give special attention to the economic minerals and the mines of the region. The period from the 23rd of June to the 11th. of August, was spent between the Sault Ste. Marie and Montreal River, and from the last named date till the 29th of August, I was engaged in examining the mines and rocks of Michipicoten island, and those of the north shore between that island and Michipicoten harbour. While at Sault Ste. Marie, I also took the opportunity of spending a day among the Huronian rocks which occur to the northeastward of that place, and during the first half of the month of September, I visited the copper mines of Portage lake, in Michigan.

In the Geology of Canada you have already described, in general terms, the rocks of the district above referred to, dividing them into the Laurentian, Huronian, and Upper Copper-bearing series, which latter you have since identified with the Quebec group of Eastern Canada. In the present report I shall describe in the same order, the rocks and economic minerals which came under my observation.

I. LAURENTIAN SERIES.

The rocks of this formation which occur on Lake Superior, seem to differ somewhat from those of other parts of Canada. They are