IN NOVA SCOTIA ELLS. 443 



detailed examination of that district in 1870, and published a 

 -valuable report on the subject in the annual volume of the 

 Department for 1870-71. In this report the gold-bearing rocks 

 of the province were fully described and compared with those 

 found in the province of Quebec, and also with those of the gold- 

 fields of Australia in which district he had already worked for 

 some years as Director of the Geological Survey of that colony. 

 In 1871 Dr. Selwyn also made a study of the iron-ore deposits 

 of the Londonderry district, the results of which were stated in 

 the Report of the Department for 1872-73. 



In 1870 work was commenced in the Springhill coal basin 

 by Mr. Scott Barlow, and carried on continuously by him till the 

 close of 1878. In addition to mapping the Springhill areas, 

 Mr. Barlow's work extended over a large portion of the county 

 of Cumberland, the results appearing in several important reports 

 to the Geological Survey Department. In 1873 Mr. Walter 

 McOuat began a series of surveys in parts of the same field, but 

 more particularly in the area to the north-east of that assigned 

 to Mr. Barlow, which were carried on till his death at an early 

 age in 1875. The results of his explorations also appear in 

 several valuable reports addressed to the same Department. 



In 1872 Mr. Charles Robb, after several seasons spent in New 

 Brunswick, began a systematic exploration of the Cape Breton 

 coal-fields. In this work he was associated with Mr. Hugh 

 Fletcher, who, on the retirement of Mr. Robb in 1875, assumed 

 control of and completed the mapping of the coal-basin. The 

 explorations were thereupon extended and the whole of the island 

 carefully surveyed and mapped in great detail. 



Upon the completion of this work, Mr. Fletcher's field of 

 operations was transferred to the main land, and the same detailed 

 series of surveys which had been inaugurated in Cape Breton 

 were there continued. In this way much of the northern and 

 eastern portions of the province have been carefully mapped and 

 the geological details indicated with great minuteness, including 

 the counties of Guysboro, Antigonish, Colchester and Cumber- 

 land, and large portions of Hants and Kings. The minuteness 



