632 THE LOWER SILURIAN PERIOD. 



mines in the future. The total area of the gold region may be estimated 

 at about 7000 square miles, and the proclaimed districts do not yet 

 reach a twentieth part of this area. Discoveries are being continually 

 made ; but in a country covered with wood and with boulder clay 

 these must be slow and gradual in their progress. The quartz veins, 

 which run in the strike of the beds, seem everywhere to contain gold, 

 and the rocks throughout the whole area, are interlaced with such 

 veins, few of which have been exposed, and of these few have yet 

 been tested. It may therefore be anticipated that the productive 

 gold districts will for some time continue to enlarge and increase in 

 value, and that occasionally a strong stimulus will be given to enter- 

 prise by great and unexpected discoveries. 



It is also to be observed that the veins at present opened are not yet 

 worked up to their highest point of profit. Even in the larger mines, 

 like those of AVavei-ley, no vertical shafts have been sunk on the vein, 

 nor have the excavations been extended beyond a very moderate 

 depth. The desire to make the work remunerative as it proceeds 

 has induced all the Companies to sink on the slope of the veins, and 

 to conduct the works on the cheapest possible plan. I am convinced, 

 however, from a consideration of the regularity and extent of the veins, 

 that were vertical shafts sunk to a great depth, and regular mining 

 on the Cornish plan pursued, the preliminary outlay would be more 

 than repaid by the inci'eased production. At the depths to which 

 excavations have been carried some of the veins have improved ; 

 others appear to have diminished in productiveness ; but there is no 

 reason, except the analogy of certain other gold regions, and this is 

 often a very fallacious guide, to doubt that the principal veins opened 

 continue productive to great depths, and that by opening them exten- 

 sively richer portions might be found to compensate for the poor 

 ground sometimes reached in the present workings. It would, I think, 

 repay the provincial Government to give special privileges to Com- 

 panies which would expend sufficient capital to open mines on a large 

 scale. 



In 1855, I supposed that the probabilities of the occurrence of gold 

 in the inland hills of Upper Silurian age were even greater than those 

 in the older rocks of the coast. This view was based on the then 

 received age of the Canadian auriferous deposits, and on the apparently 

 more metalliferous character of the inland rocks. Experience, 

 however, has hitherto been in favour of the coast series. Gold has, 

 it is true, been found in the inland district, and possibly in the Upper 

 Silurian series. The Middle River district in Cape Breton may 

 be of this age. Gold has been found in the vicinity of Cape Porcupine, 



