The Acton Coppe?- Mines, 357 



about two fathoms on the strike, commencing "with a breadth of 

 nine feet, and irregularly diminishing to the north-westward. 

 Beyond the excavation it appears to diminish farther and pro- 

 bably thin out. On the northwest side this mass was limited by 

 limestone belonging to the line of isolated masses and on the 

 south-east by a mass of serpentine-like rock, the face of which stands 

 in a nearly vertical attitude. 



*' In costeening pits, which have been carried across the strike of 

 the upper part of the ore, at distances of about eighty yards on 

 one side of the cross-cut and 110 yards on the other, indications 

 of ore continue to exist in the stains of green carbonate and small 

 masses of the sulphurets, but the work done is not sufficient to 

 give facts that bear upon the mode on which the ore is connected 

 with the rock. 



" In so far as the facts ascertained by the present condition of 

 the excavation enable an opinion to be formed, it appears to me 

 probable that the copper ore mingled wit! i silicious matter con- 

 stitutes the paste of a breccia or conglomerate, the fragments of 

 which have been accumulated in a depression in the surface of 

 the argillaceous and silico-magnesian sediments forming the slates 

 and their associated harder masses, while the sulphurets of copper 

 have been deposited from springs bringing the metal in solution 

 from some more ancient formation. The whole conditions of the 

 case appear to bear a striking resemblance to those of the 

 copper deposits of the Urals as described by Sir Roderick Mur- 

 chison, except that in Russia the ores are carbonates instead of 

 sulphurets. 



" However this may be, there is no doubt the mass of ore is a 

 very important one ; already, after but nine weeks' work, not far 

 from three hundred tons have been housed, supposed to contain 

 about thirty per cent, of pure metal. The value of this quantity 

 would be about $45,000, while exclusive of lordship, the mining 

 expenses, and those necessary to carry the ore to a market, will 

 be comparatively small. The quantity of ore excavated appears 

 to have produced but a moderate impression on the total mass 

 insiorht. 



" Whether such another bunch of copper ore will be met with 

 associated with the limestone it is impossible to say: but even 

 should one exist, it would perhaps be too much to expect that 

 it would be found immediately at the surface. 



" Many of the facts connected with the mode in which the 



