No. 2.] DAWSON — IRON ORES OF NOVA SCOTIA. 135 



mordial rocks of the Atlantic coast. As they have afforded no 

 fossils their age does not at present seem capable of more precise 

 definition. With regard to the filling of the vein fissures, this, 

 if coeval with the metamorphism of the containing beds or im- 

 mediately subsequent thereto, would fall between the period of 

 the lower Devonian and that of the lower Carboniferous, or 

 within the Devonian age. The denudation connected with the 

 Lower Carboniferous conglomerates and the fragments contained 

 in these conglomerates, seem to imply that the ore-bearing slates 

 were then in the same condition as at present. On the other 

 hand the Lower Carboniferous sandstones themselves contain in 

 places narrow veins of specular iron, which also occurs, as well 

 as magnetic iron, in the fissures of the Triassic trap. 



On the west side of the East Kiver of Pictou, there occur rocks 

 precisely similar to those of the Cobequid range, of which indeed 

 they may be regarded as an Eastern continuation, and including 

 an iron vein which must be regarded as the equivalent of that of 

 the xlcadia Mine, which it resembles perfectly in mineral char- 

 acter and mode of occurrence, differing only in the greater pro- 

 portionate prevalence of the specular ore.* 



In New Lairg, a few miles from Glengarry Station, the most 

 western portion of this vein known to me, contains much Ankerite, 

 with strings of Specular iron ; and in large loose pieces there are 

 indications also of red ore which is not visible in place. Farther 

 to the eastward on the West Branch of the P]ast Eiver of Pictou, 

 there ajjpears a band of quartzite thirty feet thick filled with 

 veins of Limouite; but specular ore is not found at this place. 

 Still farther to the eastward and near the east branch of the 

 East River the specular vein attains a very large development, 

 shewing in some places a thickness of twenty feet of pure ore. 

 Its course is S. 60^ to 70" E. or nearly coincident with that of 

 the containing beds; and as on the Cobequids, its attitude is 

 nearly vertical and it appears to be thickest and richest in the 

 risintr grounds. In one very deep ravine the bed of quartzite 

 usually associated with the ore seemed to be wanting, and the 

 Tein w IS represented by innumerable strings of Ankerite, forming 

 a network in the slate. As in the Cobequid vein, masses of Mag- 

 netic ore are occasionally mixed with the Specular. To complete 



* This vein was first described hy the late Mr. Hartley in the 

 Report of the Geological Survey of Canada, 1870. 



