16 THE OCCURRENCE OF GOLD IX NEW B?^UNSWICK. 



regards the actual Hiiding of gold, neverthele?.-, go far, in my 

 opinion, to confirui the view.^ previously expressed as to its prob- 

 able future discovery."' 



In the summer of 1899, while at Woodstock, I was shown 

 specimens of alluvial gold from the Serpentine River, some of 

 them weighing from two to six grains. These specimens, with" 

 the reports concerning their mode of occurrence, seemed so en- 

 couraging that the Director of the Geological Survey instructed 

 me when in the vicinity to examine that valley and investigate 

 anew the character and mode of occurrence of the alluvial de- 

 posits therein, and especially to ascertain whether gold existed 

 in sufficient quantities in these to be profitably wrought. Ac- 

 cordingly in the month of September when the river was suppos- 

 ed to be at its lowest summer level, I engaged Mr. Manzer Gib- 

 erson of Arthuret,with a log canoe, and ascended the Right Hand 

 Branch and its tributary (the Serpentine), spending a week on 

 this exploration Very fortunately Mr. Solomon Perley, whose 

 name has already been mentioned, w\as there with two men en- 

 gaged in prospecting the river bottom,. and to him I am indebted 

 for much valuable information relative to the distribution of the 

 gold and the precise localities where it oecurred. He pointed 

 out to me a number of the places where he had obtained it by 

 panning and washing the gravels, some of which we tested over 

 again. Several other new localities were, however, examined, 

 and a series of trials made which proved the existence of the 

 precious metal in the alluviums for a distance of eight or ten 

 miles along the river bottom. Although no rich diggings were 

 discovered .yet a fair showing of gold was obtained. 



The Serpentine fiows in a westerly course into the Right 

 Hand Branch, a tributary of the Tobique, the distance from 

 where the latter joins the St. John River to where gold occurs 

 being from 80 to 85 miles, following the river valleys. This 

 river traverses a rugged and broken country from 1800 to 2000 

 feet high, and has trenched a valley from 800 to 1000 feet deep 

 throughout the principal part of its course. It is in the narrow- 

 est and deepest part of this valley that the alluvial gold was 

 found. 



