The Acton Coj^jfcr Mines. 349 



consigned to tlie narrow house, the grave, in the presence of 

 Richard Charlton, Esq., British Consul, Captain Seymour, and 

 officers of the Challenger, and all the foreign residents at the 

 place. Lament may be allowed for David Douglas. Through 

 eleven years of toil and hardship, danger, difficulty, and loss, he 

 had strenuously worked his way, following his vocation with a 

 devoted spirit and undaunted courage. He feared God, was be- 

 loved by his friends, and esteemed by all who ever had the hap- 

 piness of knowing him. An inscrutable decree cut him down as 

 he grasped the laurel of wordly fame. Fleeting though that may 

 often be, still the noble qualities of his soul hold fresh impres- 

 sions on the memory of his friends, and his worth as a useful 

 member of society, and practical botanist, will live and be felt 

 while the study and cultivation of plants and flowers remain 

 pleasing and beneficial to mankind. G. B. 



ARTICLE XLV. — A Holiday Visit to the Acton Copper Mines. 

 By one of the Editors. 



Before entering upon the special subject of this paper, we shall 

 explain to our readers in what place within the Province of Cana- 

 da these mines may be found. If, then, we start from the termi- 

 nus of the Grand Trunk Railway at Montreal, and crossing the 

 far-famed Victoria Bridge take the road towards Portland, we get 

 upon the highway to the village of Acton. Travelling thus in a 

 direction a little north of east we pass over the beautiful plains 

 of the county of Chambly and the still more lovely valley of the 

 Yamaska, which, were they cultivated with any degree of skill, 

 or intelligence, would rival for productiveness the prairies of the 

 west, and yield immense wealth to their owners and the country. 

 As it is, the fields are for the most part miserably neglected — the 

 «oil is apparently wrought-out and impoverished by frequent crop- 

 ping — the grain crops are very scanty, and the herbage of the 

 pasture lands is little more than stunted Canada thistles. Lean 

 men and lean kine pick up a poor subsistence on these wasted 

 meadows of this fine county. So thoroughly has the land been 

 cleared that bush or tree of any kind is scarcely to be seen, and 

 even fences are few and far between. The old timber has long 

 ago been swept away, root and branch ; and the i lea of planting 

 trees for shelter, beauty or fuel, has not yet entered the rustic 

 minds of the happy /ia6ito?js. As we near the river Yamaska , 



