C40LD-BEAEING EOCKS OP NEW BEUNSWICK. 23 



association therewith of greater or less masses of evidently intrusive granite. Some of 

 these are mere dykes, others protruding bosses, while a large belt of similar rock, starting 

 from the coast about Barri ngton and Sable Island, sweeps around through the interior, 

 enclosing the entire gold-field. The degree of alteration bears no very definite relation 

 to the visible outcrops of granite, and the alteration is sometimes found many miles from 

 the latter, though it is quite possible that in a vertical direction its distance may really be 

 very small. It is noticeable also that the quartzites have been less affected than the asso- 

 ciated slaty beds, some of the former being no more altered than those of the interior, 

 even though they may be seen to alternate with glittering mica schists. The latter are 

 sometimes garnetiferous, and very generally profusely studded with large and small 

 crystals of staurolite, mica and other minerais. The metamorphic rocks are known to be 

 gold-bearing, though to a less degree than the less altered rocks of the interior. 



Division II. The grey and greenish-grey slates of this division are found near the 

 summit of the whin series, with the upper beds of which they alternate. They are only 

 distinguished from the slates of Div. 1 by their containing less heavy beds of quartzite or 

 sandstone, and as being, with the latter, marked by the more or less abundant dissemin- 

 ation of chlorite. The gold mines of North and South Brookfiekl are situated in this por- 

 tion of the series. In the metamorphic region, near the coast, they may be represented 

 by chloritic schists and occasionally gneisses. 



Division III. The black, earthy, pyritous slates of this division form a very character- 

 istic and well-defined belt, resting upon the quartzites, and having, as seen in Queen's 

 county, a siirface breadth of between three and four miles. They are in places carbon- 

 aceous and sometimes graphitic. I am not aware that they yield gold, but both at "White- 

 burne and at South Brookfield they are but little removed from the beds in which that 

 metal is profitably mined. 



Division IV. The slates of this division are contrasted with the last in being generally 

 of a much lighter colour, and, though often striped or ribbanded with bands of pale green 

 or purple, are mostly grey and weather with a bluish tinge. Gold has been reported as 

 occurring within the limits of this division, but, so far as I am aware, no profitable leads 

 have yet been found.' 



If we except certain obscure markings foiand by Dr. Selwyn in the slates of Lunen- 

 burgh, and which are supposed to be allied to the Eophyton of the Cambrian beds in 

 Sweden, together with certain other forms equally obscure found by Prof. Hind at 

 Waverley, some of which have been referred, under the name of Rhabdichnites, by Sir "W. 

 Dawson, to the trails of aquatic animals, and others, by Mr. Billings, to Eoapongia and casts 

 of Orlhis, no fossils have yet been found in any part of the gold-bearing series of Nova 

 Scotia by which its age can be fixed. While, however, the information thus afforded is 

 very meagre, its tendency is strongly in favour of the view that the rocks in question 

 are to be referred to the Cambrian system, a reference which is also probable upon other 

 grounds. 



' More recent observations appear to indicate that the rocks of this division are not only newer than those of 

 Divisions I -III, but unconformable «itli the latter, thoui;h no definite evidence as to age has as yet been obtained. 



