592 THE UPPER SILURIAN. 



building-stone. The hematite and clay ironstone of the same region 

 might also be profitably used with the specular ore of the great bed. 



Copper ores occur in several parts of this district. In the country 

 eastward of the Lochaber Lake, in the county of Sydney, large 

 fragments of copper and iron pyrites are found in the surface gravel, 

 t> and have no doubt been derived from a vein containing this ore, 

 along with ores of iron similar to those of the Cobequid Hills, and 

 which are found attached to the loose fragments. These indications 

 were examined by the author in 1848, and made known to the 

 Mining Association. A Cornish miner was afterwards employed 

 by the Association to explore the locality, but his labours were un- 

 - successful ; and as yet nothing has been found except the loose 

 masses already referred to, some of which are from two to three feet 

 in diameter. The strike of the rocks at this place is S. 70° W. to 

 S. 20° W., and the district in which the ores occur consists of olive, 

 gray, and black slates, with beds of quartzite and dikes of green- 

 stone and compact felspar. In some places the slates are filled with 

 small veinlets of specular iron ore and ankerite. The pyrites con- 

 tains from four to seventeen per cent, of copper, the average of 

 several specimens being 10 - 8 per cent. This would be a valuable 

 ore if found in sufficient quantity and of easy access ; there appear, 

 however, to be serious difficulties in the way of opening the 

 deposit, more especially its low situation and the depth of the surface 

 cover. 



Copper pyrites, yielding 31*6 per cent, of copper, and therefore 

 of very rich quality, has been found on the south branch of Salmon 

 River ; but I am not aware that it occurs in sufficient quantity for 

 mining purposes. This ore has also been found in small quantity 

 near the Acadia iron-mine, and in the barytes veins at the Five 

 Islands. 



Sulphate of Barytes. — This mineral occurs in considerable quantity, 

 in numerous irregular veins traversing the slates in the banks of the 

 East River of the Five Islands. I have little doubt that these veins 

 are strictly a continuation of the great iron veins already described ; 

 but here barytes predominates, and only a small quantity of specular 

 iron is present and a very little copper pyrites. The barytes at this 

 place is pure white, and often in very beautiful crystalline masses. 

 Its cavities are coated with fine crystals of carbonate of lime of the 

 variety known as dog-tooth spar. Large quantities of barytes have 

 been extracted at this place, by levels and open excavations in the 

 steep sides of the ravine, and have been exported to the United States • 

 but I believe the demand has not been found sufficient to warrant a 



