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Chalmers — Gold-Bearing Alluvions. 



33 



THE SOURCES AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE GOLD- 

 BEARING ALLUVIONS OF QUEBEC. 



iStu r ft c t 



By R. Chalmers, Geolog-ical Survey of Canada. 

 (Read before the Club, March 19th, 1901.) 

 The few remarks which I have to offer this evening-, refer to 

 the gold-bearing river gravels of south-eastern Quebec, in the 

 Eastern Townships and County of Beauce. Alluvial gold has 



been found here in the valleys of the 

 two principal rivers which drain the 

 region, the Chaudi^re and the St. 

 Francis. In the bottoms of the val- 

 leys along which these rivers and 

 their tributaries flow, it occurs in 

 scattered grains and nuggets in the 

 gravels and sands and frequently in 

 crevices in the underlying rocks. It 

 is, however, most generally found in 

 paying- quantities in old river chan- 

 nels now partially or wholly filled 

 with boulJer-clay, these often being 

 at a lower level than the present 

 water-courses, and usually on one 

 side or the other, though in the same 

 valley. The g-eneral succession of 

 the deposits in these river valleys is 

 much the same throughout the re- 

 gion, and is as follows in descending 

 order, (fig. i ) : 



1. Surface gravel and sand, carry- 

 ing fine gold in places. 



2. Boulder-clay, including in some 

 valleys, an interglacial deposit. 



3. Stratified clay and sand, often 

 in alternate beds; " the pipe clay " 

 and "quick-sands "of the miners. 



4. Stratified g-ravels, usually rusty, 

 or oxidized, the materials belonging to local rocks. Gold-bearing^ 

 ^specially in lower strata. Gold often coarse. 



; 'j^i .-r^ -v^ ; 



■:- 1 



Yc'(„. 



7" 







Fig.l. General Section of the 

 Gold-Bearing Deposits. 



