SCOTIA GOLD VEINS. 65 



and thou to resume their regular course. It may be noted that these last-meutioned 

 irregularities are generally accompanied by changes in value. Incidental to the flexures 

 of the strata are irregularities in the dimensions of the veins, corrugations of the walls, 

 cross leads, feeders, etc. 



It need not, however, be assumed that the movements of the strata were either abrupt 

 or continuous, rather they were slow and intermittent. The filling of the fissures was, 

 generally speaking, continuous, and as each opportunity was offered the process of 

 vein-deposition began. The relative dates of the secondary disturbing forces cannot be 

 given, but the latest known evidence of marked action in the province is the Triassic trap 

 of the Bay of Fuudy, which apparently did not affect the auriferous measures lying a few 

 miles away from it. 



The fact that the auriferous measures of Nova Scotia are at many points interrupted 

 by masses of granite, has been frequently referred to as having a direct bearing on the 

 metalliferous values of the veins. It is known that in several cases the gold-bearing veins 

 butt against granite, but under such conditions no change in their values for better or for 

 worse has come under the writer's notice. The granite protrudes in the strata with com- 

 paratively little disturbance, having, as it were, melted its way throiigh. The evidence 

 is in favor of the granite being later than the foldings, although it has frequently pressed 

 itself along the bedding planes for considerable distances. This view is borne out by the 

 sections at Mosseland, near Tangier, at Country Harbor Narrows, etc., where the prox- 

 imity of the granite has not affected the values of the veins. The varying proportions of 

 sulphides of iron, coppei-, lead, zinc, etc., under these conditions, not being marked by a 

 predominance of any particular mineral. Nor is the quartz filling changed from its normal 

 character beyond any slight variation due to metamorphism of the small percentages of 

 lime, etc., commonly occurring in it. In this connection the summaries given by Von 

 Cotta in his "Treatise on Ore Deposits," offer a striking contrast. 



The granite itself has not yet yielded any noticeable metallic deposits, although fre- 

 quently holding irregular veins, filled with quartz, felspar, etc. ; nor have any contact 

 segregations been observed near it. An exception, however, to this rule is noticed at 

 Dalhousie, Queen's Co., where copper ores occur in veins in granite. The intrusive dykes, 

 etc., of the neighbouring Devonian, on the contrary, are frequently associated with metal- 

 lic deposits. 



This fact may, perhaps, be safely brought forward to explain the surprise of miners 

 from abroad when they find that the ground close to the granitic masses and dykes does 

 not prove specially metalliferous. In Cornwall, for example, the strata have been elevated 

 by the granites, not inaptly described as now protruding like islands, and mantle round 

 them. The granites penetrate the slates much as they do here, and present them usually 

 with greater degrees of metamorphism, and the metalliferous values of the strata appear 

 to be due to the " Elvaus," as already noticed in the case of the Nova Scotia Devonian in 

 some localities. But in this province, the granites, presumed to be later than the strata of 

 Oriskauy age which they penetrate and metamorphose at Nictaux, were not accompanied 

 or followed by the enriching dykes such as are found in the Devonian of Salmon River, 

 Lochaber, Poison's Lake, etc., a few miles to the north of the gold measures. 



When these veins are considered as unaffected by the proximity of granite, and as 

 surface veins not penetrating to underlying and possibly metalliferous strata, it would 



Sec. IV, 1888. 9. 



