discoveries of Gold in Nova Scotia, 429 



of which are twins and highly modified. The large amount of 

 this substance in the sand on the beach, makes the gold washing 

 somewhat difficult, and with the rude apparatus employed much 

 of the fine dust is lost. Mercury has not yet been used in sepa- 

 rating the gold either here or at the other localities.* 



" It is impossible to form any reliable estimate of the amount of 

 gold obtained in Nova Scotia since its discovery there in Marcli 

 last, as in almost every instance the " claims" have been worked 

 by private individuals who were generally disinclined to give in- 

 formation in reofard to their own success. Nor would the amount 

 alone, if ascertained, be a fair criterion by which to judge the 

 value of the gold fields, since they have in most cases been ex- 

 plored by those who have had no previous experience in searching 

 for gold, and only the rudest methods have been employed in ob- 

 taining it. I was informed that gold to the value of $2400 had 

 been taken from one " claim " at Tangier, $1300 from another, 

 and $480 from a third, although many other " claims" had yielded 

 little or nothing. I saw in Halifax ingots and specimens of Tangier 

 gold which were valued at about $2000, and at Lunenburg at 

 least $250 worth of fine dust which it was said had been washed 

 from a single " pocket " on the beach. 



" I have recently analyzed some specimens of gold which I ob- 

 tained at Tangier and Lunenburg, and the results are given be- 

 low. The Tangier specimen was taken from a quartz vein, and 

 is very remarkable for its purity. I find it is surpassed in this 

 respect by the gold from only one other locality, viz., Schabrow- 

 ski, near Katharinenburg, in Siberia.f The Lunenburg gold 

 was in small particles, washed from the sand on the shore. In 

 preparing for the analyses the gold was boiled in chlorhydric 

 acid, fused twice with borax and hammered, and its specific 



* While at Lunenburg I was informed of a circumstance connected 

 with the discovery of the gold which illustrates the utility of even a 

 little scientific knowledge, and the need of its more general diffusion. 

 Some years since a farmer, living in the neighbouring town of Chester, 

 thought he had discovered a valuable copper mine on his land, and at 

 a great expense sunk a shaft about eighty feet in depth. Finding little 

 copper to repay his labor, and having exhausted all his means, the work 

 •was finally abandoned. In his excavations he had cut through a large 

 quartz vein richly stored with gold, which he had noticed, but supposed 

 to be merely copper pyrites. The present owner works this copper 

 mine for gold. 



t Dana's Mineralogy, Fourth cd., page 9. 



