The Acton Copi^er Mines, ^ 351 



little frequented place, but now, thanks to the copper mines, it is full 

 of vigorous life. There is no beauty about it at all. The country 

 around it has not to any great extent been cleared. Patches of 

 cultivated and pasture land here and there nestle in the woods. 

 Stumps and scrubby bush are on all sides conspicuous features. 

 The soil is not good ; for the most part it is barren sand and 

 scarcely worth the labour of cultivation. In some seasons it will 

 afford good pasturage for which purpose it is most likely to be 

 henceforth devoted. 



The old houses of the hamlet are rapidly being put out of coun- 

 tenance by new and more pretentious erections. Large buildings 

 are springing up on every side for stores, work-shops and dwell- 

 ing-houses. Already wealth is beginning to flow into this hitherto 

 obscure and neglected place. Its population within the last 

 few months must have increased seven-fold at least. Signs of 

 prosperity are everywhere manifest. The barren fields whicb 

 formerly might have been purchased for an old song, are now 

 transformed into town-building lots, and rising enormously in 

 value. According to the course of things in this country the vil- 

 lage bids fair to become, ere long, a town and the town, in due 

 course, to be raised to the rank of an incorporated city. 



The mines are about half a mile distant to the west from the vil- 

 lage. The road at first passes over low and swampy ground, part 

 of which has been cleared. A little way on the road becomes dry 

 and sandy. About half way there is a considerable ridge of 

 sand which lies in a direction to the west of south. Hemlock is 

 the prevailing timber ; sphagnum abounds in the swamps, in 

 which also there is an undergrowth of curious shrubs and plants. 

 The region is by no means picturesque but rather the very re- 

 verse. A lover of beautiful scenery would never think of seeking 

 it here. A botanist would scarcely think the labour of forcing 

 his way through swamps, charred stumps, fallen rotten timber, and 

 prickly branches, repaid even by the pretty and interesting plants 

 he would pick up. AVith compass in hand we attempted to ex- 

 plore the surrounding waste, and, except for the novelty of the 

 thing, it was rather weary work. We satisfied ourselves of this, 

 however, that the mound of sand runs through the bush in a line 

 parallel to the limestone rocky ridge, about half a mile to the 

 west, on the flank of which the mines are found, and may have 

 been formed, in the process of the elevation of the continent, on 

 the shores of an ancient estuary. 



