CARBONIFEROUS DISTRICT OF COLCHESTER AND HANTS. 277 



Guld. — A deposit of this metal, perliaps of even more interest in a 

 geological point of view than practically, though apparently of some 

 value in this last respect, occurs in the Lower Carboniferous conglo- 

 merate at Corbitt's Mills, four miles north of Gay's River in Colchester 

 county. It was described in the Canadian Naturalist for 1864 by 

 Mr C. F. Hartt, and Dr Honcyman has favoured me with manuscript 

 notes of a visit to the place in 1866. From these sources I extract 

 the following information : — The locality is at the junction of the 

 Lower Carboniferous conglomerate with the slate and quartzite, forming 

 the extremity of the ridge separating the valleys of the Stewiacke and 

 Musquodoboit Rivers. The slates belong to the Silurian gold-bearing 

 formation, and contain small but rich auriferous quartz veins. The 

 conglomerate is formed of the debris of these older rocks, and gold 

 occurs in it exactly as in modern auriferous gravels, being found in 

 the lower part of the conglomerate, and also in the hollows and crevices 

 of the underlying slate. The fact is interesting, as showing that the 

 gold veins existed in their present state at the beginning of the Car- 

 boniferous period, and that the causes which produce the more modern 

 gold alluvia were then in operation. By a later repetition of this 

 process, the drift or boulder clay which overlies the conglomerate 

 is at this place also slightly auriferous. In the Report of the Com- 

 missioners of Mines for 1866, it is stated that tlie high prices charged 

 for land at this place had interfered with the operations of those 

 desirous of opening the deposits ; but that a crushing-mill had been 

 erected, and that mining operations on such a scale as would prove 

 the value of the deposit would soon be undertaken. Should they 

 prove successful, they will present a curious and perhaps unique 

 instance of mining for gold in rocks of the Carboniferous system, and 

 will stimulate inquiry as to the possible productiveness of the Lower 

 Carboniferous beds in other places where they come into contact with 

 the older auriferous slates, as is the case in many places in the valleys 

 of the Stewiacke, Musquodoboit, and St Mary's Rivers, as well as in 

 the eastern part of Hants. 



