IN NOVA SCOTIA—ELLS. . 443 
detailed examination of that district in 1870, and published a 
valuable report on the subject in the annual volume of the 
Department for 1870-71. In this report the gold-bearing rocks 
of the province were fully described and compared with those 
found in the province of Quebec, and also with those of the gold- 
tields of Australia in which district he had already worked for 
some years as Director of the Geological Survey of that colony. 
In 1871 Dr. Selwyn also made a study of the iron-ore deposits 
of the Londonderry district. the results of which were stated in 
the Report of the Department for 1872-73. 
In 1870 work was commenced in the Springhill coal basin 
by Mr. Scott Barlow, and carried on continuously by him till the 
‘close of 1878. In addition to mapping the Springhill areas, 
Mr. Barlow’s work extended over a large portion of the county 
of Cumberland, the results appearing in several important reports 
to the Geological Survey Department. In 1873 Mr. Walter 
McOuat began a series of surveys in parts of the same field, but 
more particularly in the area to the north-east of that assigned 
to Mr. Barlow, which were carried on till his death at an early 
age in 1875. The results of his explorations also appear in 
several valuable reports addressed to the same Department. 
In 1872 Mr. Charles Robb, after several seasons spent in New 
Brunswick, began a systematic exploration of the Cape Breton 
coal-fields. In this work he was associated with Mr. Hugh 
Fletcher, who, on the retirement of Mr. Robb in 1875, assumed 
control of and completed the mapping of the coal-basin. The 
explorations were thereupon extended and the whole of the island 
carefully surveyed and mapped in great detail. 
Upon the completion of this work, Mr. Fletcher’s field of 
operations was transferred to the main land, and the same detailed 
series of surveys which had been inaugurated in Cape Breton 
were there continued. In this way much of the northern and 
eastern portions of the province have been carefully mapped and 
the geological details indicated with great minuteness, including 
the counties of Guysboro, Antigonish, Colchester and Cumber- 
Jand, and large portions of Hants and Kings. The minuteness 
