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a considerable amount of slag drops upon the iron plates. In spite of more or less protection from sand, they soon become so warped and out of shape that within three or four weeks they are totally destroyed, and have to be replaced by new ones at a considerable expense of time and money. To obviate this universal difficulty, we have cut a circle in the plate just where the stream of slag naturally falls, and have introduced into this a shallow cast-iron basin. The slag drips into this without injuring the plates, and is taken out, from time to time, by the fork and thrown into the slag-pot. The basin stands two months or more before it is destroyed, and is replaced at a cost of 75 cents, and without a moment's loss of time to the furnace.

There is nothing particularly worthy of notice about the chargingfloor except what I have already described. Every pound of ore and fuel is accurately weighed on a 5-beam charging-scale, and is also sampled. In the same way the matte produced is daily sampled, as well as accurately weighed, before it is dumped from the pot, and the slag is sampled from every potful and assayed once every twentyfour hours. From these data we are able to prepare an accurate daily history of the furnace-work in each furnace for the benefit of the directors at home, to whom it is sent in a weekly sheet.

By properly mixing our three different ores, we are enabled to get along without ever using a pound of flux, which is a very fortunate circumstance, as I know of neither limestone or iron-ore in the vicinity suitable for this purpose.

For fuel, we use Pennsylvania coke of the best quality, which is brought via the Great Lakes and the Algoma branch of the Canadian Pacific Railroad at a less cost than might be imagined. We smelt 7 to 8 tons of ore to 1 ton of coke, as proved by having our coke overrun when we clean up, and estimate our large shipments of some thousands of tons, for there is very apt to be a heavy deficit in coke.

Our furnaces are supplied with wind by two separate No. 6 Baker blowers, one to each furnace. The blower to our No. 2 furnace is provided with a vertical engine, which forms a part of the blower itself, while our No. 1 furnace is run by a large Brown automatic engine, which has ample power for other additional work. Our water is pumped from a neighboring stream, where we have built a dam and formed a small lake, by two duplex Worthington pumps, either of which has ample capacity to supply both furnaces. Two

steel tubular boilers, set in one battery, supply steam for the entire plant.

If I were asked to point out the most notable features of these works, apart from the mines, I should mention the very large capacity of the furnaces, nearly or quite 125 tons per twenty-four hours for each on fair ores; the entire absence of flux, owing to a more or less basic gangue-rock, and some very massive pyrrhotite from one of our mines, the Stobie; the very favorable ratio of ore to coke, 6 or 8 to 1, not as the result of an especial trial under favorable circumstances, but from months of average work. The same may be said of the capacity of the furnaces, which is greater than any that I know of running on pyritous ores.

Of course, the chief peculiarity of our product is the large percentage of nickel which our matte carries, in addition to its copper contents. Our average matte has about 27 per cent. of copper and 15 per cent. of nickel; and both of these metals are of such purity that, when separated, they are fitted for the most delicate work, and stand any tests that any similar metals stand. As every copper-smelter knows, we can determine the percentage of copper matte by eye with such exactness, that, from any per cent. between 25 and 80, I have never cared for an assay of it for my own benefit, as my eye will always tell me its copper-contents near enough for metallurgical or chemical purposes. But even a very slight admixtnre of nickel completely masks the color and texture produced by varying percentages of copper; and in our mattes I do not think that any one could distinguish between a matte carrying 15 per cent. and one carrying 40 per cent. of copper, providing that nickel were also present in our usual proportions.

At present, we break our matte into large pieces, which we pack into old oil-barrels, chinking up the interstices with the smaller fragments. These are shipped to Swansea, or to various German works, according to the bids of the foreign refiners for our product.

It may perhaps be news to some of my hearers that the entire world's production of nickel annually is less than 1000 tons, the bulk of this being produced by the New Caledonian nickel-mines, which are oxide-deposits situated in a serpentine dyke. While I am not at liberty to give figures of our production, it will still be very evident to any observer that the world's production of this year will be a good deal larger than that of 1888; and as we are told that New Caledonia is losing money at the present low price of the metal, it is evident that we need not look far for the world's supply.

VOL. XVIII.-19

NATURAL GAS EXPLORATIONS IN THE EASTERN
ONTARIO PENINSULA.*

BY CHARLES ALBERT ASHBURNER, PITTSBURGH, PA.

(Ottawa Meeting, October, 1889.)

GAS IN THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY.

NATURAL gas has been known to exist for many years in the St. Lawrence Valley, between Quebec and Montreal, and more particularly in the vicinity of Louisville and Three Rivers, 74 and 94 miles respectively northeast of Montreal, and 98 and 78 miles respectively south west of Quebec; the distance from Montreal to Quebec along the St. Lawrence River being about 175 miles.

It was not until 1880 that any practical explorations were begun with the hope of finding gas in sufficient quantities for commercial uses. In this year Messrs. Piret and Genest, of Three Rivers, sank a well near St. Maurice to a depth of 50 feet, where solid rock was encountered. A similar well was drilled through the glacial and alluvial drift, in the same district, in 1883, by the Messrs. Renaud Frères and Dubois, to a depth of 70 feet before solid rock was encountered. In this latter well a strong flow of gas was obtained. The gas was an outflow from a very limited reservoir in the porous glacial gravel, which had been filled from the gas resulting from the decomposition of vegetable remains, which had been buried in the gravel at the time of its deposition. Subsequently, other wells were sunk in the same way, with the hope of getting gas in commercial quantities from similar reservoirs.

Commercial Gas.-By gas in commercial quantities I mean gas in such quantity that, if utilized with proper care and economy, it would generate steam at a cost below the cost at which the same duty could be obtained from the use of coal or wood at current prices, and that

*This paper has more special reference to explorations for natural gas in that portion of Ontario bounded on the north by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Niagara river, on the south by Lake Erie, and on the west by a line drawn from Hamilton, southwest to Port Dover.

the net revenue from the use of the gas would be such as to give a reasonable profit on the capital invested in the drilling of the well and the piping of the gas to the consumer, and at the same time. provide for a sinking fund to replace this invested capital within the time when it might be considered that the gas-producing rock would become absolutely exhausted. It is important in this connection to bear in mind that natural gas, like all other mineral deposits, can be exhausted. In a commercial sense a gas-reservoir is not unlike a coal-bed. For every cubic foot of gas taken out of a gas-reservoir there is just one cubic foot less remaining.

RELATION BETWEEN PETROLUEM AND NATURAL GAS.

A popular impression exists that the gas is being continually produced, but this is not a fact in a commercial sense, as far as the natural gas-deposits of the Appalachian region are concerned. Natural gas and petroleum are intimately associated with one another. In all gas-reservoirs it is possible to find petroleum, sometimes, however, in such infinitesimal quantities that it is of no commercial value, and can only be found by a very careful examination of the gas-producing rock. Natural gas is also always to be found in the rocks which produce petroleum, although in the latter case the amount is so small as not to be practically valuable.

While it is unnecessary in this connection to comment upon the question whether the primary condition in which these hydrocarbon products exist is gas or oil, and if gas, whether the secondary product is petroleum, and if petroleum, whether the secondary product is gas; still it is interesting to know that wherever petroleum has been found a certain amount of gas is always being produced by the volatilization of the lighter products of the petroleum. This production of gas, however, is so small that the statement is justified that no gas is being produced in quantities sufficiently great to be of commercial value. In disproof of the opinion, which I have always held, that petroleum can be found in gas-producing rocks, the statement is frequently made by practical gas men that in certain districts where natural gas has been found, and where it is being practically utilized for commercial purposes, the gas is absolutely dry; that is, it contains no petroleum which can be obtained as a precipitate from the gas. While it is true that in many of our prominent gas districts the petroleum is not readily visible in the gas, still I know of no case where I have not been able to find some

petroleum, even if it were only a single drop, in a district which is producing daily millions of cubic feet of natural gas.*

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Without making further reference to the occurrence of petroleum in the district under consideration, I believe that whatever may be

* I have given careful thought to this question in connection with the occurrence of the immense deposits of natural gas in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, Pa., and the great possibility which, to my mind, exists of finding valuable pools of petroleum near Pittsburgh, as well as new pools of gas. It should be a sufficient warrant for a very exhaustive geological examination of the district, at the expense, however great, of the Pittsburgh natural-gas companies.

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