Roches et minéraux du collectionneur, Hull - Maniwaki, Québec; Ottawa - Peterborough, Ontario

Occurrences of minerals, rocks and fossils are described from about two hundred easily accessible localities in the Gatineau River area between Hull and Maniwaki, Quebec, and along Highway 7 from Ottawa to Peterborough, Ontario. The localities furnish a wide variety of specimen material and some minerals and rocks suitable for lapidary purposes. In the Gatineau district, which reached its peak of mining activity in the 1880s and l890s, there are numerous abandoned mica-apatite mines. Good specimens of these minerals and of associated silicate minerals are available from the dumps. Other nonactive mines in this region include deposits of iron, brucite, molybdenum, feldspar, barite, zinc, asbestos, quartz and limestone. Minerals and rocks suitable for lapidary purposes can be found, for example serpentine, marble, scapolite, feldspar (peristerite, amazonite), diopside, graphic granite, but this area is not notable for its variety or abundance of ornamental-type material. One mine, the Leduc, was exploited for gem (tourmaline). Fossils occur only in the Hull area. Deposits in the Ottawa-Peterborough area that are currently in operation include talc, nepheline, marble, and limestone. Inactive mines are more numerous; they were worked for gold, fluorite, iron, feldspar, sulphur, arsenic, lead, copper, uranium, apatite and actinolite. The earliest gold mines in Ontario were operated in the area north of Madoc and Kaladar, and some of the earliest iron mines were worked in the Marmora area. Nepheline, cancrinite, marble, serpentine, epidote, peristerite and graphic granite are examples of the available lapidary material. Ordovician fossils are abundant in road- cuts and in limestone quarries near Peterborough.