1865.] PERLEY — GOLD MINING IN NOVA SCOTIA. 207 



found is undoubtedly that of Laidlaw's farm. The principal 

 workings are situated near the summit of a hill composed of hard 

 metamorphic shales, where openings have been made to the depth 

 of from four to five feet upon a nearly horizontal bed of corrugated 

 quartz of from eight to ten inches in thickness. This auriferous 

 deposit is entirely different from anything I had before seen, and, 

 when laid open, presents the appearance of trees or logs of wood 

 laid together side by side, after the manner of an American 

 corduroy road. From this circumstance the miners have applied 

 the name of ' barrel-quartz ' to the formation, which in many cases 

 presents an appearance not unlike a series of small casks laid to- 

 gether side by side and end to end." 



" The rock covering this remarkable horizontal vein is exceed- 

 ingly hard ; but beneath it for some little distance it is softer, and 

 somewhat more fissile. The quartz itself is foliated parallel to the 

 lines of curvature, and exhibits a tendency to break in accordance 

 with these striae." 



" The headings, and particularly the upper surface of the corru- 

 gations, are generally covered by a thin bark-like coating of brown 

 oxide of iron, which is frequently seen to enclose numerous 

 particles of coarse gold, and the quartz in the vicinity of this 

 oxide of iron is itself often highly auriferous." 



Up to the present time this vein has not been. found further to 

 the eastward than the point of its first discovery, whilst it has 

 been traced some eight hundred feet to the west, in all cases being 

 overlaid with rock, and that again with earth, in some places to 

 the depth of ten feet. Under the impression that the stratum in 

 this locality either lay in its original horizontal plane of deposi- 

 tion, and had not been subjected to upheaval ; or that after bein^ 

 uplifted it had become folded over into the position it occupies ; 

 or that it is the summit of an anticlinal axis ; it was judged that 

 other and parallel veins would be found at lower depths, under- 

 lying the vein exposed. Shafts were sunk to depths of over fifty 

 feet, and exploring drifts run out at that depth, but without 

 success; and it is doubted whether any other veins do exist. 

 This is all the more singular when it is stated, that on the oppo- 

 site side of Lake Thomas, a distance of only one quarter of a mile 

 to the westward, the strata are upheaved at an angle of 80° and 

 numerous veins of quartz are found, and afford profitable returns 

 on being worked. 



The discovery of gold in the conglomerate at Gay's River has 



