424 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



distance from Sprague's falls cannot be very great, as it is about 

 nine miles north-west from the Calais bridge. The exact locality 

 of the gold is in a plumbaginous slate, very black and greasy. 

 Near it is a large boss of quartz, with sub veins of quartz running 

 through it ; and there are also near by veins of quartz containing 

 pyrites. These two localities are the most promising of anything 

 seen by us in the St. Croix country. 



Mr. Esty of Calais, who is interested in the gold mines of Nova 

 Scotia, showed us a large mass of quartz on Bog brook in Hard- 

 scrabble in Calais, where he had found a few specimens of gold. 

 The rock is syenite and the boss ofquartz is largely of a carnelian 

 character, not good enough, however, to be dug out for an ornamen- 

 tal stone. 



An excursion to the east part of Tallmadge revealed the exis- 

 tence of a great number of quartz veins in the schist. Whether 

 they contain gold in very minute quantities, such as would be 

 developed by a crusher, we could not determine. We found no 

 specks in them visible to the naked eye. 



We were informed that in Cutler there are auriferous veins ; and 

 that Mr. Steadman of that place sent a ton of the rock to be crushed, 

 and the yield was one hundred dollars. Quartz that paj's less than 

 twenty dollars to the ton is not worth crushing ; but every dollar 

 above twenty is a net profit. In Columbia, also, according to the 

 papers, gold has been found and we have no reason to doubt the 

 truth of the statement ; as all these localities are in the same schist- 

 ose rock that enters the State from New Brunswick on the St. Croix 

 river. 



From the accounts received concerning the gold rocks of Nova 

 Scotia, we have every reason to believe that this new gold field in 

 Maine is very similar to the Nova Scotiiin one. Both are some- 

 what different from those in California and along the Apallachian 

 region of the United States and Canada. The great peculiarity of 

 the Nova Scotia gold consists in its dissemination through the quartz 

 in such fine particles that it is rarely visible. A ton of Nova 

 Scotia quartz, in which not a particle of gold can be seen, will yield 

 richly to the crusher and amalgamator. If a few preliminary ex- 

 periments upon the St. Croix quartz yield good results, then it will 

 be for the interest of the proprietors to erect works for crushing 

 and amalgamating upon the St. Croix river in Calais or Baring. 



A mass of pyrites has been handed to us for examination from 



