GEOLOGY OF THE ACADIAN PROVINCES. 5 



Acadian provinces form a well -marked geological district, distin- 

 guished from all the neighbouring parts of America by the enormous 

 and remarkable development within it of rocks of the Carboniferous 

 and Triassic systems. 



Nova Scotia, which is in a geological point of view the most 

 important of the Acadian provinces, has not enjoyed the full benefit 

 of a public geological survey, though some preliminary explorations 

 have been made under the auspices of the Government. Yet, its 

 mineral resources have been very extensively developed by mining 

 enterprise, its structure has been somewhat minutely examined, and 

 it has afforded some very important contributions to our knowledge 

 of the earth's geological history. Circumstances of a political 

 character, rather than any want of liberality or scientific zeal on the 

 part of the people, have delayed the public and systematic exploration 

 of the geology and mineral resources of the country ; while the pos- 

 session of useful minerals, deficient in all the neighbouring regions, 

 has made it of necessity one of the most important mining districts in 

 North America. Unfortunately, in one sense, for the colony, its 

 abundant mineral wealth attracted attention at a period when the 

 Government of the mother country was not actuated by the liberal 

 spirit that now characterizes its dealings with its dependencies, and 

 when the rights of the colonists were not so jealously or ably guarded 

 as at present. The valuable minerals were reserved by the Crown, 

 and were leased to an association of British capitalists, who opened 

 the principal deposits of coal, and largely exported their produce, and 

 some of whose agents have zealously and successfully aided in explor- 

 ing the geology of the country. The Provincial Legislature, how- 

 ever, evinced a very natural disinclination to expend the public money 

 in the examination of deposits in which its constituents had no direct 

 interest, and which long continued to be a fertile subject of controversy 

 with the mining company and the Imperial Government. 



These impediments to public action on the subject of geological 

 exploration have now passed a*way. Arrangements have been entered 

 into between the province and the mother country, in virtue of which 

 the control of the mines will revert to the former on the expiry of 

 the lease. A recent act of the Legislature has empowered the Pro- 

 vincial Government to gi*ant leases of unopened mines to private 

 speculators. The provincial lines of railway have opened up many of 

 the inland mineral districts. Valuable metallic minerals have been 

 discovered in localities which had escaped the reservation ; and 

 arrangements have been made with the General Mining Association, 

 which have thrown open the coal districts of the province to mining 



