It may possibly be, however, that the more correct way to put this would be the very opposite of what I have just stated; because if you stand and face the rock when laid bare in any of the Canadian mines and trace the downward course and increasing strength of the veins, it would really seem as if this strange mineral substance, at some former time, when in a state of violent ebullition, had striven energetically to force an outlet into the upper air, splitting the overlying rock in all directions in its passage upward from below; and that, as it gradually cooled off and expended its force, the rifts in the rock, which now form the veins, became narrower and narrower, until, when the surface of the ground was at last reached it had only just sufficient energy left to bubble over through the cracks, where it then cooled off and hardened into thin lava-like ridges. These ridges are to be seen in all directions in the asbestos districts of Canada, wherever the peculiar yellowish-looking stone forming the upper crust of the asbestos-bearing rocks is found. And notwithstanding the plainly visible evidence that these rocks, from centuries of exposure to the elements, have been worn away on the upper surface until they have assumed a rounded, water-washed, boulder-like shape, the narrow ridges spoken of have apparently always remained in the same state, alike indestructible and undisturbed. If you will imagine to yourself the mountain masses of almost perpendicular rock, which contain the horizontally-lying seams frequently found in Italy, to be thrown backward and downward so as to lie face uppermost, and so that you could walk on the face, you will get a rough idea of the lie of the veins in the Canadian serpentine. And possibly on further exploration the analogy would be still further borne out by these veins being found to terminate in reservoirs or pockets, just as it has been said is usually found to be the case in Italy. No one has yet gone far enough down to test the depth of the veins in any Canadian mine. It will no doubt presently be done. All that would be required would be to bore until the next series was reached. The experiment, if expensive, would be both valuable and instructive, especially bearing in mind the well-known fact in Canadian mining that the deeper you follow the veins into the ground the better the quality of the cotton becomes. There is one more point of distinction between the two kinds, and that is in the surface indications, which may possibly be due to atmospheric influences. In Italian exploration the prospector is not guided by any hard lines or ridges on the rock surface of the ground, as in Canada. On the contrary, he finds cracks in the perpendicular face of the rock filled with a white powdery substance which, when the surface is broken away, is said to assume a leathery appearance, after which, when further entry is made, the true asbestos is found.