DEEP MINING IN NOVA SCOTIA — PREST. 421 



;gold district, should be studied under the full conviction that 

 different causes give different results, and also that the same 

 -€auses in different circumstances often give different results. 



Deposition. 



In order to consider to advantage the question of deep mining- 

 it is necessary to begin with the geological history of the forma- 

 tions we propose to discuss. From a knowledge of their origin 

 and the progress of events connected with their evolution, we 

 may then arrive at an intelligent conclusion in regard to their 

 future possibilities. 



The geological position of the auriferous formation of Nova 

 Scotia rests upon both stratigraphical and fossil evidence, neither 

 of which, I am sorry to say, is very decisive. Such fossils as 

 the Eophyton and Asteropolithon (the latter of which with sev- 

 eral other forms I have found east of Moose River mines), 

 .seem to place it in the lower Cambrian. Calcareous or dolo- 

 mitic layers have been discovered, which would indicate the pres- 

 ence of fossils ; but so far they have proved barren. The want, 

 however, of distinct fossiliferous evidence has made its correlation 

 with any foreign series a matter of great difficulty. Faribault, 

 of the Dominion Geological Survey, from lithological com- 

 parisons inclines to the belief that the gold-bearing formations 

 of Nova Scotia belong to the same horizon as the gold-bearing 

 rocks of Quebec. Other observers have regarded them as an 

 ■equivalent of the Olenellus beds of New Brunswick. The most 

 important points to be noted in connection with the age of these 

 rocks are, their immense thickness, the almost complete absence 

 of fossils and the apparent deep sea origin of their upper beds. 

 The thickness of the quartzites and slates, as estimated by me on 

 the Sissibou last summer, is over 25,000 feet. At Molega, 

 Queens Co., the quartzite alone shows about 15,000 feet. At 

 Mt. Uniacke the thickness is about the same. It seems hardly 

 possible that this great thickness belongs to the Lower Cambrian ; 

 but there is so far no evidence that it belongs to any other 

 horizon. We would naturally expect to find fossils in the 

 transition from the quartzites to the argillites which marked 



