THE OCCURRENCE OF GOLD IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 15 



time of his death, soon afterwards, it is said that he was neojoti- 

 ating with a company to work these alluviums. In 1889 several 

 Woodstock gentlemen incorporated themselves under the title 

 of The Northern New Brunswick Mining Company, with the ob- 

 ject of systematically prospecting and working the gold-hearing 

 gravels and quartz veins of this river valley. In 1893 this com- 

 pany, of wdiich Mr. Solomon Perley is President, and ^Ir. J. C. 

 Hartley, Barrister, Secretary-Treasurer, employed Mr. W. N. 

 Gould of Sussex to examine the geology and character of the 

 district referred to as regards the economic minerals and report 

 thereon. The result was that in the following year a three-stamp 

 prospecting mill was set up in a building erected for that pur- 

 pose about six miles from the mouth of the river. Heavy quartz 

 veins traverse the rocks here, and tests of a number of these were 

 made, but I believe without any satisfactory results. More or 

 less prospecting for alluvial gold has been carried on every sea- 

 son since, not only in the Serpentine valley, but also in the up- 

 per part of the Nepisiguit. Colours and small nuggets have been 

 obtained in a number of pl:ices. 



In the year 1897 Prof. L. W. Bailey was instructed by the 

 Director of the Geological Survey lo make an examination of 

 this river valley with reference to the occurrence of gold in work- 

 able quantities in it, and to collect samples from the quartz 

 veins for assay. In his report he states that ''no work was in 

 progress at the time of our visit nor were we subsequently able 

 to obtain any derinite information as to the reason for the erec- 

 tion of the mill or the returns therefrom. We were ourselves 

 unable to rind any gold and heard that the parties operating the 

 mill had also failed to obtain any, except washing in a neighbor- 

 ing brook, but of this we were unable to speak with certainty. 

 * * * Samples from various veins found at and near the mill 

 and aggregating twelve pounds and a half in weight, were sub- 

 mitted to assay in the Laboratory of the Geological Survey, but 

 were found to contain neither gold nor silver."* 



Prof. Bailey says, however, "the results, though negative as 



*Ann. Report Geol. Survey, Can., Vo. X, 1S97, pp. 39-43M. 



