The Acton Co2)pe7' Mines, 353 



direction, the limestone was observed to hold little patches and 

 seams of variegated ore and yellow pyrites, Avith stains of the 

 blue or green carbonates of copper. The limestones in the im- 

 mediate vicinity presented several veins of quartz crossing the 

 strike, but containing only traces of copper. 



"During Mr. Hunt's visit, a small amount of excavation was 

 made with pick and shovel, and a farther extent of work has been 

 done since, but though this has not added materially to the 

 information at first obtained, there can be no doubt, even should 

 the limits of the deposit extend no farther than those above indi- 

 cated, that there is here an unusually rich bunch of copper 

 ore. 



" The mine is just half a mile to the south of the Acton station 

 of the Grand Trunk Railway. The road to it is over a marshy 

 piece of ground, and it is crossed by one or two low mounds of 

 yellow sand. At the end of the road, a hill rises to the height 

 of about 105 feet above the marsh, and descends to a marsh on 

 the other side. It stands on a base of a quarter of a mile in 

 width and for nearly one-half the distance is composed of 

 a sub-crystalline magnesian limestone dipping to the N. W. 

 with an inclination varying from thirty to forty degrees. The 

 limestone is light grey in fresh fractures, and weathers to a dull 

 pale yellowish tint on the exterior. It is in some parts studded 

 with concretionary nodules consisting of concentric layers of car- 

 bonate of lime with a transverse fibrous structure. The exterior 

 of these is of a botryoidal form, and the layers are in some places 

 partly replaced by chert preserving the fibrous structure. These 

 nodules very much resemble some concretionary forms of traver- 

 tine, and the occasional intercalation of magnesian layers in the 

 nodules makes it probable they are the latter. As stated 

 by Mr. Hunt the limestone of the hill is intersected by several 

 small veins of quartz, and one of them, more conspicuous than the 

 rest, carries traces of the yellow sulphuret of copper and of galena. 

 The mass of limestone visible, extending a short distance beyond 

 the summit of the hill, has a thickness of about 270 feet. It is 

 divided into heavy beds in which irregular masses of chert are 

 disseminated in unequal quantities in different places, being most 

 abundant towards the bottom. 



" The summit of the limestone from the north-eastern corner 

 of the lot proceeds south-westward for about thirty chains, and in 

 the succeeding 300 yards turns gradually south and ultimately a 



