ORDINARY MEETINGS. XV 



A paper by T. C. WESTON, Esq., F. G. S. A., entitled, " Notes on 

 Concretions found in Canadian Rocks," was read by the CORRESPONDING 

 SECRETARY. (See Transactions, p. 1.) 



On motion of DR. MACGREGOR and MR. FORBES, it was 

 Resolved, That the Institute express its deep appreciation of the 

 great services which MR. ALEXANDER McKAY has rendered it in his dis- 

 charge of the duties of Recording Secretary for a period of fourteen 

 years ; and that as a mark of its appreciation of his services, the Insti- 

 tute elect Mr. McKAT to Life-membership, without payment of the 

 usual fee. 



FOURTH ORDINARY MEETING. 



Church of England, Institute, Halifax,, llth February, 1895. 

 ALEXANDER McKAY, Esq., VICE-PRESIDENT, in the chair. 

 DR. GILPIN, Inspector of Mines, read a paper entitled, "The Iron 

 Ores of Nictaux, N. S., and Notes on Steel-making in Nova Scotia." 

 (See Transactions, p. 10.) 



In the discussion which followed DR. A. H. MACKAY gave a popular 

 description of this region which he illustrated by means of a large out- 

 line map. Starting from the Railway Junction of Middleton and 

 following the railway across the Annapolis Valley for four miles in a 

 southerly diiection, over the sand and gravel which rest on Triassic beds, 

 one arrives at the foot of the South Mountain range, where the Nictaux 

 River in its course nearly magnetic north, debouches from its rocky 

 gorge channelled through the Highlands. From Nictaux Falls station 

 the railway enters into the gorge, creeping higher and higher along its 

 western side. Just at the foot of the hills upper silurian slates appear to 

 show themselves, and the railway cuts every now and then great dykes 

 of igneous rock which atvarious timesrent the slates in numerous fissures. 

 Two miles up from the falls, in what appear to be of lower Devonian 

 age, the river and railway line at Cleveland cut at an oblique angle, 

 approximately vertical strata of magnetic iron ores generally highly 

 siliceous. One mile further up, and the road passes through a great 

 intrusive granite belt about a mile in width. Then comes a great rock 

 excavation through a bluff of very hard slates, when the course is again 

 in the granite and tending south-westerly to Alpena Station, six miles 

 above the Falls. During the two weeks he was in this district, he 



