Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/543

Rh of those who were to be burned upon the funeral pyre were wrapped in asbestus cloth, that their ashes might be kept separate from those of the pyre. In the eighth century Charlemagne is said to have had an asbestus table-cloth, with which, when the feast was over, he was wont to amuse his rude warrior guests by throwing it into the fire, and in a short time withdrawing it cleansed and uninjured.

On the other hand, the first Canadian deposit was opened only in 1878, and the owners experienced considerable difficulty in disposing of their output, which for the season did not exceed fifty tons. In 1889, with a Canadian output for the year of nearly five thousand tons, the demand is in excess of the supply, and is increasing, with prices showing an upward tendency.

The asbestus of commerce is the product of two widely separated countries—Italy and Canada. The Italian article was first in the market, but the Canadian product soon made for itself a place and a name, and the mineral is now shipped from Canada to Italy; while toward the close of 1889 the United Asbestus Company, Limited, of London, England, which controls the Italian mines, acquired property in the Canadian field, and is equipping the same with a complete plant preparatory to operations on a large scale. It is very evident, then, that the Canadian fiber is, to say the least, no mean factor in the asbestus industry.

Canadian asbestus occurs in serpentine, being, as already explained, a fibrous form of this mineral. In two great geological formations represented in Canada there are extensive areas of serpentine, viz.—the Laurentian, which, beginning on the coast of Labrador, stretches westward beyond the Great Lakes; and the Quebec Group, a formation occupying a large portion of the province of Quebec lying between the river St. Lawrence and the United States boundary. In the serpentine of both these formations asbestus occurs, but as yet it has not been proved that the asbestus veins of the Laurentian serpentines are sufficiently persistent to warrant mining operations. It is not improbable that productive areas may yet be found in the Laurentian rock, as prospectors are now turning attention in this direction. But at present it is only in the serpentine of the Quebec Group that productive mining is carried on.

In this formation there is a belt of serpentine rock "which extends with tolerable directness, though with frequent breaks, northeastward from the Vermont boundary to some distance beyond the Chaudière River," which flows into the St. Lawrence near the city of Quebec. Throughout the whole of this belt there are indications of the occurrence of asbestus, but the present productive area comprises only a very small portion of this extensive belt. Although good workings occur elsewhere, the great majority