Lucius J. Boyd

“ Having blasted the rock, the first process of extraction is termed "cobbing," which means breaking off the adhering serpentine from the Asbestos vein, this being manual work done by boys. The fibre is packed in sacks, each weighing 100 lbs., and in some cases 200 lbs. are shipped by the local railroad company to Montreal or New York at something about 10 cents and 20 cents per sack.
Asbestos is sorted into three qualities, and priced thus:—
Some inferior quality, at a very low price, is used by the Asbestos Mining and Manufacturing Company of Quebec. ”

“ Therefore, from these practical facts it will be seen that in order to get the best results it is necessary to work at the lowest possible level when a favourable out-crop is shown, as, possibly, working at a high elevation on the out-crop may be a mistake, where a lower point is available. ”

“ It is also to be found in other parts of the world, as in the Pyrenees, Alps of Dauphing, Mount St. Gothard, Italy, Sweden, Ural Mountains, Silesia, New South Wales, Savoy, Corsica, Cornwall, Scotland, and other places too numerous to mention; but in Canada the finest and most crystalline serpentine is to be found forming great belts of over 100 miles long and several thousand feet in breadth. There it associates with the dioretic, or volcanic, rocks, and is, according to Dr. Ells, without any doubt, "An [6] alteration product of a dioretic rock rich in olivine." ”

“ I may also mention that it can be extensively used in the manufacture of crucibles, &c. Its soft and unctuous qualities (especially where it is found associated with "steatite," or "soapstone," which is often to be seen in large quantities) renders it easy to be worked, and, if reduced to a powder, could be moulded in bricks which the most intense heat will not affect. One of the chief properties it contains, and one [7] which the serpentine of Lower Canada is so famous for, is the Asbestos, crysotile, or fibrous serpentine. ”