HISTORY OF GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 25 



EXAMINATION OF Coos COUNTY. 



One of the most laborious parts of our work accomplished this year 

 has been the exploration of about six hundred and seventy square miles 

 of territory, in the north part of Coos county, by Mr. Huntington. The 

 country is mostly unsettled, and consequently travelling is restricted to 

 the most primitive methods, and all supplies are carried on one's back. 

 The same is true of all specimens collected, which were at least a thousand 

 in number, from the forest region. But the information acquired has been 

 most important. As will be seen by the map, the line has been clearly 

 drawn between the White Mountain series of granitic or gneissic rocks, 

 and the dark slates and schists of newer formations. The latter are 

 sub-divided into eight different bands, and a county map has been col- 

 ored to show them. Two matters of economical interest have been 

 developed, the first, the existence of alluvial gold along Indian and Perry 

 streams ; and the second, the existence of large beds of serpentine north 

 of Carlisle's grant, a few miles south-west from the crown monument, at 

 the angle between -New Hampshire, Maine, and the province of Quebec. 

 The latter is, of course, too remote to be available for the arts at present, 

 though the time is coming when it will be used. The gold is not unlike 

 that of Lyman, judging from the character of the underlying rocks, but 

 more closely resembles that mined a short distance over the line, where 

 J. H. Pope, member of parliament, of Cookshire, province of Quebec, has 

 been profitably extracting gold by sluices for several years. Mr. Hunt- 

 ington's specimens are quite large pieces of shot gold, of the same 

 purity with that obtained by milling in Lisbon. It is not improbable 

 that the gold can be profitably extracted both from the soil and the 

 rock near the extreme northern boundary; and the proprietors of the 

 large tracts of land there would do well to expend a few hundred dollars 

 in testing the value of these auriferous deposits. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



There are further remarks upon the agricultural character of lands 

 along Connecticut river; operations of the gold mining company in 

 Lyman and Lisbon ; notice of Mr. Vose's report ; the Carroll county lead 

 VOL. i. 4 



