Until the discovery of the Canadian mines, the variety here spoken of as amiante (amianthus), was esteemed the most rare and delicate kind, on account of its beautifully white, flexible, long, and delicately laid fibres. This variety is generally found buried in the centre of the older crystalline rocks in the Pyrenees, the Alps of Dauphiny, on Mount St. Gothard, in North America, in the serpentines of Sweden, the Ural Mountains, Silesia, and New South Wales. The most beautiful specimens, such as are preserved in museums and mineralogical collections, have mostly been brought from Tarantaise in Savoy, or from Corsica.[1] In this latter place it is said to be so abundant that, its mercantile value being unknown, it has often been used, instead of tow, as a material for packing.
In a handbook published by the Dominion Government in 1882 (before the discovery of the mines of chrysotile) on the mineral resources of Canada, it is said that--
"What is commercially known as asbestos is really a term used to denote a peculiar fibrous form assumed by several distinct minerals, rather than to designate any particular species. Tremolite, actinolite, and other forms of hornblende and serpentine, passing into fibrous varieties, assume the name of asbestos, and the 'Geology of Canada' does not give the mineral as a distinct one, but recognizes it under these different headings. As yet comparatively little asbestos has been found in Canada."
This is sufficient to show how small was the interest, even so recently as that, attaching to this substance in the very country which was so soon to find it taking important rank amongst her natural productions.
That singularly beautiful mineral termed "crocidolite," which displays such sheens and radiances of gold and bronze and green as give it the appearance of satin changed into stone, is nothing more than compressed asbestos. The derivation of its name is not happy. It is said to be from +krokos lithos+, simply crocus-coloured or yellow stone. This is doubtless its general colour, but the finest crocidolite is anything but yellow.
Having heard that there were some fine specimens of asbestos on view at the recent exhibition of the United States products at Earl's Court, I made a journey there specially to see them. In this, however, I was disappointed. There was but one small tray of so-called asbestos (amphibole) on view; and this was of a coarse woody character, very similar in appearance to a sample I had had sent to me recently from California. It was, moreover, of a very poor colour and certainly not of the kind that would readily find a market. I found there, however, a piece of unmistakable chrysotile, grouped amongst a miscellaneous lot of American minerals. The exhibitor at once told me, in reply to my questions, that this was not an American product at all, but that it was a "vegetable matter" found in Canada. He evidently did not know much about it, and said it was not asbestos at all. It was not by any means a fine specimen: it had somewhat the appearance of ordinary Thetford No. 1, though differing slightly in colour. I could get no further information about it, except that it had come from near Ottawa.