526 THE DEVONIAN PERIOD. 



there is one of striking importance, viz. : — the development of 

 veinlets at the base of the wing, forming portions of concentric 

 rings. I have endeavoured in vain to explain these away as some- 

 thing foreign to the wings, accidentally introduced upon the stone, 

 and I know of nothing to which it can be compared but to the 

 stridulating organ of some male Orthoptera! It is difficult to tell 

 whether the fragment belongs to an upper or an under wing. Its 

 expanse of wings was probably from 2 to 2^ inches." 



Useful Minerals of the Devonian. 



In Nova Scotia the only important mineral deposit known to be 

 contained in the rocks of this system is the iron oi - e of Nictaux and 

 Moose River. This is a conformable bed, at Nictaux about six feet 

 in thickness, and quite accessible, as it crops out at the surface without 

 any cover. The outcrop of the bed appears at several places in Nic- 

 taux, and also at Moose River, where the thickness appears to be less 

 than at the former place. At Nictaux the ore is a peroxide of iron, 

 laminated in structure, and full of fossil shells. At Moose River it is 

 in the state of magnetic iron, but retains its characters in other 

 respects. A specimen in my collection from Nictaux contains 55*3 

 per cent, of iron. This ore is thus of great value, but is not at present 

 worked. Its distance from the coal-fields, and the consequent 

 necessity of smelting with charcoal, are obstacles in the way of its 

 commercial application. 



In New Brunswick several important mineral deposits have been 

 recognised in the Devonian of the south coast. The following account 

 of them is from Bailey's Report. More full details as to one of these 

 deposits, the -Vernon Copper Mine, are contained in Professor Hind's 

 Preliminary Report. 



" Iron Ores. — The principal locality for this metal is the dis- 

 trict in the vicinity of West Beach and Black River, where several 

 large beds of hematite occur. As they are well known, and were 

 described in a previous Report, it is not necessary to make further 

 allusion to their character, than to say that one portion of the ore 

 occurs in a coarse reddish-gray conglomerate, the other, two or three 

 miles to the eastward, in beds of trappean and micaceous slates. 

 These rocks have been shown by Mr Matthew clearly to form a 

 portion of the Cordaite shales in the Devonian series. 



" Besides the ore-beds alluded to, iron is abundant in seams and 

 veins through most of the rocks occurring in this district, and it is 

 not improbable that further search would reveal the latter in available 

 quantities. 





