1865.] PERLEY— GOLD MINING IN NOVA SCOTIA. 209 



quartz, and bands of common and arsenical pyrites intermixed. 

 The action of the elements in decomposing the pyrites, the effects 

 of the sea-waves in crumbling the soft slates, together with the 

 frosts of each succeeding year, all have a tendency to undermine 

 and destroy the coast ; and the debris thus formed is washed away 

 during heavy gales, and, after a lapse of time, again appears in 

 the shape of sand and gravel, together with the smaller and lighter 

 particles of gold which have been released from their matrices. 



During the present year applications have been made to the Gold 

 Commissioner for areas on the Middle River, in Victoria County, 

 Cape Breton, and after due examination it was proclaimed a 

 gold district. Up to the present time all the gold produced is 

 from alluvial washings, and it is spoken of as being ' coarse and 

 nuggetty.' Very little is now being done in the district, and the 

 excitement has died away. 



To obtain the gold contained in the gangue the following 

 processes are necessary, viz., calcination, crushing, amalgamation, 

 retorting, and smelting. Many omit the first operation, but all 

 the others are indispensable. A difference of opinion exists as to 

 the benefit of calcination, some contending that the wear and 

 tear of machinery in crushing l raw ' and unburnt quartz are 

 equal to the cost of calcination. Quartz is either calcined by 

 being piled into heaps in alternate layers of quartz and wood ;' or 

 is placed in the same manner in kilns constructed for the purpose, 

 each kiln holding from ten to fifty tons. The whole is thus sub- 

 mitted to the action of intense heat, the greater portion of the sul- 

 phur and arsenic components of the pyrites are volatilized, and the 

 quartz itself is rendered friable, and easier to crush in the 

 mills. It is affirmed that quartz thus calcined will give a larger 

 yield per ton than the unburned quartz. The sulphur and 

 arsenic being in a great measure driven off, the quicksilver amal- 

 gamates with the gold released from the sulphurets. On the 

 other hand, it is affirmed, that the cost of fuel and transport to and 

 from the kilns, and the interest on the cost of these, all amount 

 to a larger sum than the presumed loss in gold, plus the wear and 

 tear of the machinery. The method of calcination in use in Nova 

 Scotia does not fully answer the purpose for which it is intended, 

 viz., the decomposition of the sulphurets. The quartz as it is 

 extracted from the vein, is thrown into the kilns, without being 

 broken into small pieces so as to expose the pyrites contained in 

 the interior of the masses ; and it is therefore impossible that the 



Vol. II. o No. 3. 



