68 GILPIN ON NOVA 



The preceding remarks have had reference exclusively to the veins which, so far as 

 our mining experience has gone, rival in eccentricity of value, locally and generally, 

 the common fissure or segregated deposits, and arc in some districts equally disturbed by 

 faults. There is a distinction of importance to be drawn here, i. e. that, while in a true or 

 cross-country vein the length of ground permitting the formation of pay chimneys is very 

 great, in the Nova Scotia veins, the longitudinal space is comparatively limited when 

 considered in reference to a series of rich pay ground zones. The j)0wer originally exerted 

 at any point to permit the conditions favoring the formation of a vein, was modified at a 

 short distance to yield similar conditions at a point. more or less to one side of the plane 

 of the first considered vein. The result, therefore, is that theoretically veins are repre- 

 sented as thin lamiuse with ends almost overlapping. Practically, the miner in our gold 

 districts, ignores this consideration, for while he deserts a vein as soon the quartz proves 

 unremunerative, his next attack is directed to the nearest outcrop he finds that presents 

 promise of profit. 



Hitherto the mining industry has been almost exclusively occupied with these small 

 veins, and the returns, although satisfactory to the individual miner, are seldom equal to 

 the expectations of extensively capitalised companies. However, as economy in the ex- 

 traction of rock and in the amalgamator's art is steadily advancing, the question of 

 profitable mining is gradually finding its most satisfactory solution in the low grade 

 ores. In several districts practical tests have shown that over considerable areas the 

 slates hold gold in amounts greater than at other points. This greater richness of the 

 slates is not accompanied by any change in the strata or its veins, beyond, perhaps, an 

 enlargement of the beds of slate. This extra percentage of gold in the slates does not 

 interfere with the values of the veins penetrating them, but it may, I think, be fairly 

 stated that they hold their gold contents more evenly distributed then elsewhere, and are 

 not marked by decidedly rich zones. The beds of quartzite are, as elsewhere, but feebly 

 auriferous. The slates contain numerous veinlets of quartz, frequently auriferous, and the 

 layers of the slate often contain thin laminœ of gold. The values of these slate belts vary 

 up to five pennyweights. It may be said that gold is almost invariably present in the 

 slates of the auriferous horizon, as frequent mill tests have shown a return up to half a 

 pennyweight, and assays invariably show traces. 



The beds of quartzite are seldom an object of interest to the miner, unless they carry 

 quartz veinlets, which are sometimes auriferous. It has been observed that many beds 

 carry very minute crystals of iron pyrites, forming in some cases perhaps two per cent, of 

 the mass. TJuder such conditions, small amounts of gold can be detected. Assays made 

 by me of quartzite from mining operations which did not show any metallic admixtures, 

 yielded barely traces of gold. 



If it were permitted to consider the auriferous strata lying comparatively undisturbed 

 and traversed by true fissure or cross-country veins, and the quartz filling to have taken 

 place, the conditions presented to the miner would have been of veins more or less en- 

 riched when passing across the alternations of quartzite and slate forming the ordinary 

 ground, and having extensive enrichments in the spaces just referred to as forming low 

 grade ground. Such a view of cross-country veins in the Nova Scotia gold fields is 

 fairly in accord with the results met elsewhere, and in fact, veins of this class occasionally 



