Section IV, 1888. [ 63 ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



V. — Notes on the Nova Scotia Gold Veins. 



By E. Gilpin, Jun., A.M., F.a.S. 



(Read May 28, 1888). 



lu this coiiuectiou I uoed uot dwell uiîou the age, extent, aud general geological 

 features of the Nova Scotia gold fields, as they have been referred to already by several 

 writers, and the labors of the Greological Survey will in a few years present the public 

 with full particulars on all these points. 



At first it was believed that the gold-bearing quartz bodies were properly classified 

 as beds, as they conformed to the bedding of the strata ; but now the general opinion is 

 that they were, roughly speaking, contemporaneous with the foldings which characterise 

 the district I am referring to, and that, occupying lines of minimum pressure along the 

 anticlinals, they are bedded veins. The consideration of this view lends an interest to 

 them when they are observed, under these conditions of formation, to present many of, 

 if not all, the characteristics of fissure or " cross-country veins." 



The last report of the Canadian Geological Survey on the work done on the eastern 

 part of Nova Scotia, divides, in accordance with the views of Mr. John Campbell, the 

 auriferous measures into two conformable grovips : — 



(1) Upper or graphitic and ferruginous slate group. 



(2) Lower or quartzite group. 



The upper group contains little beyond varieties of slate, often highly metamorphosed, 

 graphic, ferruginous, and talcose, and is at least 4,000 feet in thickness. 



The lower group is made up of alternations of varieties of slate with beds of com- 

 pact quartzite, and is, according to the report, abovit 11,000 feet thick. About the middle 

 of the section, in the eastern districts, the slates are most numerous ; and they carry the 

 greatest number of auriferoixs veins about the middle of the section. 



It is noticeable that this great mass of sediments is very decidedly non-calcareous, a 

 few beds only at different points showing the presence of calcic carbonate, whi(^h it should 

 be noticed is also not a prominent ingredient in the veins. 



The section holding the gold-bearing veins does not differ from those above and 

 below, except that the slates are perhaps more prominent, and the quartzites finer grained. 

 The veins vary in thickness from one half an inch up to six-feet, and are very numerous, 

 a section of 850 feet at Mount Uuiacke showing thirty-one veins. It has been observed 

 that the relation of the auriferous strata to the overlying slate group is similar at many 

 points. But I believe Mr. Faribault is the first to present the true horizon of the auri- 

 ferous portions of the lower group. From his measurements it lies at a distance below the 

 upper group of about 2,800 feet, and extends down to a depth of about 8,000 feet. 



Considering the foldings of the strata vertically as well as horizontally, the depth of 



