152 Mineralogy and Geology of apart of Nova Scotia. 
banks precipitous to the stream. The direction of the strata is 
nearly east and west, and the dip is about ten degrees to the 
north. The lignites are black, and some resemble common 
charcoal so much as to be readily mistaken for that sub- 
stance. Some are fibrous, and exhibit evident traces of the 
organized structure of plants; others have lost every trace of 
organization, are compact without any fibrous structure, 
break with a conchoidal fracture, and have a glossy black 
color. They take a good polish, and resemble the jet with 
which this substance is evidently identical. It occurs form- 
ing a thin layer over masses of the copper ore which some- 
times forms casts of culmiferous plants resembling the stalks 
of Indian corn (zea mays. 
The lignite sometimes contains minute flattened crystals 
of red oxide of copper, — are translucent, and _* 
crimson red color. 
Green carbonate of copper occurs investing some of the 
lignites ; and, filling interstices in the sandstone, it assumes 
a botryoidal appearance. It also occurs in delicate on 
investing the masses of vitreous copper ore now to be 
scribed. 
This valuable ore occurs in beds from two to four inches 
thick, which, covered with lignites, alternate with each oth- 
er, the lowest bed being the thickest and most compact. — It 
is of an iron black color, with a slight ne of lead grey. It 
a a metallic lustre, and bre 
fracture. Some specimens are of a crystalline or granular 
structure, breaking so as to exhibit brilliant metalloidal sur- 
faces ; others are rats compact, and break pos a smooth 
ace. The e specific gravity of the most compact variety 
is ao the qracalar varieties, more open in their texture, 
: xceed 4.8 or 5. It is sectile, and readily impressed 
by asmooth blunt steel instrument ; it therefore possesses a 
of ae te being extended under pressure 
a fine polish, and is hig ov! 
the atmosphere. It is mixed occasionally with yellows 8 
cee grey pyrites, which is much harder, and no 
Tt con ae a smaller proportion of copper vand a dials 
no specimen of this ore elie th any traces of arsenic _ 
