USEFUL MINERALS. 



mining and smelting operations have been carried on at ttn- London- «, 

 derry mines, and in 1865 I saw a thriving mining village whnv, 

 in 1849, there had been but a wild wooded ravine. 1 had not time 

 to visit the excavations; but Dr Honeyman informs me that t ii«- 

 original vein at Great Village still holds out, or rather appears as 

 two veins, about twenty feet apart, and each with from four t'< five f< M t 

 of ore, though occasionally widening to about twenty feet or dimin- 

 ishing to mere strings. One of them consists chiefly of brown 

 hematite. Extensive openings have been made at Martin's I hunk, 

 where the ore is also hematite. The ore is now smelted with 

 charcoal, large quantities of which are made in the neighbouring 

 hills; but a great extension of the operations is anticipated, M soon 

 as the railway shall connect the mines with the coal district of 

 Springhill. The reputation of the iron made from this ore is very 

 high, owing to its excellent quality, and suitableness to the manu- 

 facture of steel. 



Within the last few years veins of hematite are stated to have 

 been discovered in rocks of Upper Silurian age on the East River 

 of Pictou, near Springville, and I have received from a locality near 

 the French River of Merigomish a fine specimen of compact carbonate 

 of iron, which is said to occur there in large quantity, though whether 

 as a vein or bed I am not informed. 



Veins of iron ores, similar in character to those above described, 

 occur in nearly every part of this metamorphic district ; they are, 

 however, of small magnitude, and I am not aware that they are in 

 any place of workable dimensions. In many places extensive masses 

 of shattered quartzite and slate are penetrated in every direction by 

 slender veins of micaceous specular iron ore. 



In addition to these veins of iron ore, conformable beds, as already 

 mentioned, exist in the Upper Silurian slates, more especially on the 

 East River of Pictou, at the locality indicated on the map. At 

 this place, one bed appears to be forty feet thick, and much 

 resembles that in the Devonian at Nictaux, but the ore is more 

 silicious, and contains only about forty per cent, of metal. It is 

 not at present worked. This bed of ore could no doubt be traced 

 extensively, and must eventually become of great economical im- 

 portance. Though the ores are less rich than those of the Cobequid 

 Mountains, the deposits are likely to be more continuous and persistent 

 This great bed of ore on the East River of Pictou is especially 

 worthy of the attention of capitalists engaged or about to engage . 

 in smelting operations, as it is only ten miles distant from the Albion 

 coal-mines, and is in the vicinity of abundance of limestone and 



