Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 12
Lime Preparation at 18th-Century Louisbourg
by Charles S. Lindsay
Limestone used at Louisbourg
The first limestone used at Louisbourg was obtained from Port
Dauphin (St. Anne's Bay), 55 miles away. This was a thin-bedded
carboniferous limestone of the Windsor group and was the same as
the limestone discovered at Mira (12 miles away) in 1726 which gradually
replaced that from Port Dauphin.1 Apparently the limestone
was suitable for construction work at Louisbourg since no complaints
were made about it during the early years. The hydraulic qualities of
thin-bedded carboniferous limestone were particularly useful at
Louisbourg, where much of the construction was in waterlogged areas.
In 1733 quarries were opened at Spanish Bay.2 In 1809,
Thomas Patience described the limestone from these quarries as dull blue
in colour, burning to a pale colour similar to Dorking lime, a high
quality English hydraulic lime.3 Yet Franquet complained that
the large amount of grit in the lime prevented it from bonding properly
with sand.4
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