Macfarlane on the Acton Copper Mine. 447 



ARTICLE XLIII. — Contributions to the History of the Acton 

 Copper Mine. By Thomas Macfarlane. 



(Read before the Natural History Society of Montreal.) 



Three years have elapsed since the openiDg of the Acton Cop- 

 per Mine, and probably few mines have in such a short time 

 gained a greater or more merited celebrity. It has been my good 

 fortune to be connected with it since September, 1861, in such 

 a capacity as enabled me to gain much experience as to the na- 

 ture and value of the deposits of copper ore, which are here the 

 objects of mining enterprise. Had it not been for this circum- 

 stance I should not have ventured upon another description of 

 the Acton Mine, seeing that so many valuable papers on the sub- 

 ject are already in our possession. As it is, the few observations 

 which I have made, and which I now proceed to record, are only 

 to be regarded as supplementary to former descriptions, especially 

 to those of Sir W. E. Logan, and the Rev. A. F. Kemp ; and as 

 embracino- a sketch of the progress of the mine from September, 

 1861, when Messrs. Davies and Dunkin, the proprietors, received 

 the mine back from the lessees who had previously worked it, 

 until the first of October, 1862, when the mine was purchased by 

 the Southeastern Mining Company of Canada. 



In the month of September, 1861, mining operations were being 

 carried on in the following workings : Flowers's pit, Williams's pit, 

 Harvey's pit, and No. 2 shaft. It is to be observed with regard 

 to these names, that the word pit is applied to an open work- 

 ing of irregular and very considerable dimensions, while the name 

 of shaft is given only to regular sinkings of the usual and smaller 

 dimensions. The position of the above named workings, and the 

 character of the rocks in which they occur, and by which they are 

 bounded, will be seen from the accompanying map. 



The whole of the open workings occur upon a bed of what has 

 been called in former descriptions " copper limestone," the general 

 strike of which is N.E. and S. W., with a dip more or less inclined 

 to the N. W. Immediately underlying this cupriferous limestone, 

 which is dolomitic, there occur from twenty to eighty feet of dark 

 colored shales, in which, especially near the cupriferous limestone, 

 copper pyrites is frequently found disseminated in thin strings and 

 layers. Beneath this occurs another bed of limestone, of very 

 considerable thickness, the outcrop of which forms the hill run- 

 ning along the south-east side of the mine. Between the cupri- 

 ferous Umestone and the underlying shale, there is often intruded 



