THE CARRARA MARBLE INDUSTRY

Source: Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 62, No. 3184 (NOVEMBER 28, 1913), pp.
35-36
Published by: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
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 November за, 1913. JOURNAL OP THE fcOYÀL SOCIETY OF ARTS. 85

are found in the river mouths of both coasts, and

the next season. The canal beds and fields growing
them are green during the winter and autumn, turtles
and of all kinds are abundant. Tortoises exist
the fields in many parts of the Yangtze Valleyin the waters of Yucatan and Lower California, as
well as along the Pacific coast, the shell being an
country are characteristic features of the Chinese
important
landscape. The Chinese people use these nuts in article of export. Near La Paz, in the
Gulf of California, extensive beds of pearl oysters
various ways. They are to be had roasted of street
exist. Among insects, those .claiming attention <
vendors in central Chinese cities, they are eaten
boiled, tasting somewhat like a Jerusalemare the cochineal (coccus cacti), and the honey beeJ
arti-
choke; they are made into various pastries because
and of the excellent materials they produce
beneficial to industry and commerce. The former
puddings, some of the latter being quite popular
among foreigners in China. insect is cultivated in Oaxaca, living on the prickly
pear cactus, and producing a red liquid dye.
Winterbotham, the historian, in his history of
America, relates that the trade in cochineal in the
THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF MEXICO. city of Oaxaca alone, so far back as the year 1796,
amounted to 200,000 crowns in value. The bee is
No other country produces such an astonishing
to be found all over Mexico, busily producing great
diversity of tropical and sub-tropical fruit as
quantities of honey and wax. The silkwormt
Mexico. The orange, banana, pineapple, cocoanut,
though comparatively neglected, is said to yield
pomegranate, guava, aguacate, mamé, membrillo,
an annual profit of £8,000. The country offers a
mango, papaya, zapote, and the anona are among
vast and rich field to the naturalist and entomolo-
the tropical fruits of the country. Jts temperate
gist for the study of the innumerable species of
fruits are neither so many nor so good. Among
coleoptera, there being no less than 77,000 of these
general products that grow well are sugar-cane,
catalogued.
corn, beans, peas, rice, cotton, tobacco, rubber,
indigo, cacao, coffee, vanilla, and agave, from
which is obtained the sisal hemp in Yucatan, the
beverage " pulque," and other articles of commerce
THE CARRARA MARBLE INDUSTRY.
The principal marbles , won at Carrara are
in other provinces of Mexico. The animal kingdom
ordinary white marble, veined white marble,
is almost as extensively represented in the territory
of Mexico as the botanical. There are thebardiglio
large or ash-coloured marble, and statuary
felidœ- the puma, jaguar, and ocelot. Wolves,marble, which is the scarcest and most valuable.
coyotes, and wild cats are numerous in In the
excavation the first operation is to remove
northern states. A species of sloth inhabits the the
overburden and superficial part of the dis-
southern forests, which also contain several aggregated marble in the ordinary way. Having
varieties of monkeys. Among the wild animalsopened up the quarry, the primitive method of
are beavers and martens. The armadillo and winning consists in utilising the natural fractures
to of
- iguana are very common, and are used by some the full, and in isolating the block by blasting
the natives as food. Venomous serpents and on three planes, the upper one being generally
free, so that the lower plane and one lateral plane
noxious insects lurk in the forests of the hot lands.
According to a report of the Pan-American Unionalone remain fixed to the parent rock. The usinai
the mountains and foothills present a veritablemethod of conveyance is to place the blocks on
paradise to the sportsman - deer, hares, rabbits,greased poles, inclined at an angle sufficiently
quail, wild pigeons, partridges, and an infinite elevated to admit of the blocks sliding down to the
variety of birds and ground game abounding.bottom of the valley, whence the blocks are then
Horses, cattle, sheep, goats, -and pigs are foundtaken by ox-carts or by railway to the marble
almost everywhere, and are the source of muchworks, or straight to the port of shipment. There
wealth and industry. The birds of Mexico areare 150 works where the marble is cut into sheets
far famed for their brilliant plumage and singingof all sizes, the hydraulic power being derived from
qualities. In the hot lands the birds are more small streams utilised for the purpose. Wire saws
distinguished for beauty of plumage than melodyor frame machines, which have knives fixed thereto,
are lowered to the level of the block, and with
of voice, their colouring being as varied as that of
the flowers, but in the colder belts splendid an oscillating movement cut the block as desired,
songsters fill the air with thrilling notes. A listthe process being aided by water containing sand
of the birds of the country includes about four in suspension. The marble sheets are sold to the
hundred varieties. Sperm and greyback whales,architectural works, where they are polished and
seals, and sea-lions abound in the western waters worked up. The polishing is done with water and
of Lower California and in the Gulf of that name. emery powder of different degrees of fineness,
either by hand or mechanically. In the former
The waters of both coasts, as well as the rivers and
mountain streams, teem with a great variety of case a piece of wood is first used, afterwards a kind
fish. Since the year 1891 the Government has of aloe broom, which gives it a final polish, with
devotedx much attention to fish culture, and has water and the finest emery; in the latter case
the blocks are placed on fixed tables, brooms with
established hatcheries and introduced large quanti-
ties of carp, trout, and salmon trout. Alligatorsa circular movement from à central axis being

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 86 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. November 28, 1013.

Eriesuspen-
used, and the flow of water with emery in on the south. A little later, oil was discovered
sion being continuous. at Bear Creek, near Oil Springs, and, in the sixties,,
In 1910 there were 700 quarries with at Bothwell in the adjacent county of Kent. Since
11,978
workmen, which produced 362,377 tons of then other strikes have been made in the peninsula,
marble,
which has
of the value of 16J million lire (£651,156), 150been until now the location of the chief
sources
marble works, and 138 architectural works. Inof Canada's oil supply. In 1907 the total
yield
the same year Italy herself consumed most offrom
herthese various fields was 779,876 barrels,
which
own marble, i.e., 58,721 tons; the United was reduced to 275,132 barrels in 1911. In
States
of America came next with 52,429 tons ; view
and of this serious reduction, efforts have been
then
the rest of America, 34,588 tons; whilemade to discover other fields, both in Ontario and
England
came fourth with 31,384 tons. other Canadian Provinces, and by deep drilling in'
the older fields. In New Brunswick, oil indications
were fòund as long ago as 1851, at Monoton, but
here, as in some other parts of Canada, the dis-
CANADIAN ASBESTOS.
covery of natural gas put back the search for oil¿
The Province of Quebec contains , the and itself became an important commercial product.
principal
asbestos-producing areas of Canada. Huge . Thedeposits of oil shale have been found at Albert
present
workable deposits lie scattered through Mines,theNew great
Brunswick, in Nova Scotia and New-
serpentine range which strikes through foundland. But it is in the Western Provinces
the town-
ships of Brou^hton, Thetford, and thatColeraine.
the chief interest of oil prospectors is now
centred, especially
Tho total length of this belt is twenty-three miles, in the neighbourhood of Calgary,
with a width varying from 100 feet inAlberta. Geological indications show that the oil
the extreme
produced
easterly part to 6,000 feet in the Mock Lakeinarea.
the Devonian rocks has welled up intò
The principal deposits, according tothe the
overlying Dakota sandstone, in which, at Calgary
Report
on the Economic Minerals and Mining and elsewhere,
Industries oil and gas have been found. The
of Canada, published by the Canadian prevalence
Departmentof these formations in many parts of
of Mines, occur at Thetford, Black Alberta, Lake, Saskatchewan
Dan- and Manitoba indicates the
ville, and East Broughton, the first possibility
two of oil reservoirs distributed through a
being
the most important. The mineralwide-spread occurs area.in aA very important discovery has
series of narrow and irregular veins,just been made about fifteen miles south of Calgary,
occasionally,
though rarely, attaining a width of where
six oil of high grade has been struck. In a
inches.
Veins of three or four inches of finereport fibreonwere,
the test of this oil, it has been stated
when mining started about 1880, quite that plentiful
it shows a 90 ;per cent, gasolene content, which
but as the mines increase in depth means these that the crude petroleum in its refined state
appear
to decrease somewhat in size. The veins reticulate yields 90 per cent, gasolene. The specific gravity
through the rock in all directions. The deposits of this oil was found to be 62*5 Beaumé, or ,734/
are worked by open quarrying, the long - fibred specific gravity compared with water. The specific
asbestos of the largar veins being easily separatedgravity of the distilled gasolene was 67 * 5 Beaumé,
out, while the smaller material is carefully or • 710 as compared with water. The quality of
cobbed. This separation was at first accomplished the oil, which bears a close resemblance in specific
entirely by hand, but mechanical treatment has gravity to the oil from West Virginia, is presumed
been gradually introduced and perfected, until to be so high because it is forced up, refined by
now large mills are in operation in which the nature, through a peculiar stratum of formation.
rock is broken and crushed in various ways, andThis oil is being sold in Calgary, as fast as it is
the fiberised asbestos is taken up from screens brought in, at thirty cents per gallon, and is used,
by suction fans, and blown into collectors or as it is, to run automobiles and tractors. The
settling chambers. value of this recent discovery, if further develop-
The annual production is now over 100,000 tons, ments
. maintain the supply, will be difficult to
Valued at upwards of 3,000,000 dollars. It includes over-estimate, not only to the Province of Alberta
but to other Provinces, where similar indications
a wide variety of grades, from the long-fibred crude
asbestos, valued at 300 dollars a ton, down to the will be carefully followed up.
shortest mill fibre, valued at only 2 or 3 dollars a The Preservation of the Bison. - Mr. Maxwell
ton, and " asbestic sand," used for wall-plaster, Graham, chief of the Zoological and Animal
and valued at from 75 cents to a dollar and a half
Division of the Dominion Parks Branch of the
a ton.
Department of the Interior, has, in a recent inter-
view reported in the Canadian Gazette, given some
interesting and useful particulars as to what Canada
EMPIRE NOTES.
is doing to preserve the native fauna of the country.
Canada's Oil Production. - In 1859 the first The subject is one of importance in view of the
important oil discoveries were made in Canada insufficiency of the Canadian meat supply, which
at Oil Springs, in the south-western peninsula of not only renders the adoption of mixed farming
Ontario- a tongue of low, flat, fertile meadow-land, and cattle-breeding necessary, but also has given
lying between Lake Huron on the north and Lake rise to the inquiry as to the advisability of

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