94 MINERAL RESOURCES. 



GeoL, p. 582). The supplies of ore are at present almost entirely derived 

 from extensive veins of limonite, constituting part of the great vein of 

 specular and spathic ore which was first worked at this place, but is 

 now neglected, owing to tlie greater cheapness and more ready reduc- 

 tion of the limonite; 15,274 tons of ore were mined in 1(S76. 



In a recent visit to this mine, I was pleased to see an admirable 

 smelting establishment with two blast furnaces of the most improved 

 construction, and a beautiful village, where, in my former visits, had 

 been a wild forest ravine. I found that the extensive adits now 

 worked at Martin's P.rook are in the same veins which I originally 

 described, and that the change in the chemical quality of the ore 

 depends on the fact that the mine has penetrated into portions of the 

 vein where the ankerite and carbonate of iron have been decomposed 

 and oxidized by water, owing to the more open and permeable char- 

 acter of the containing rock. 



The iron deposits in the Silurian rocks on the East River of Pictou, 

 and their associated deposits, have recently attracted some attention ; 

 but no smelting operations have yet been undertaken. The ores here 

 consist of — (1.) A bed of red hematite in the lower Helderberg slates. 

 It has a percentage of 43 to 54 of iron, and varies in thickness from 10 

 to 30 feet. Its outcrop has been traced for several miles over ground 

 where it is very accessible, and not more than 12 miles distant from 

 the great Pictou collieries. (2.) A vein of crystalline specular ore, 

 whose geological relations are similar to those of the Londonderry 

 vein. It has been traced for a mile or more, and in some places has 

 a thickness of 20 feet of pure ore. Masses of magnetite occur in parts 

 of the vein, and also quantities of spathic iron and ankerite. (3.) Veins 

 of limonite, which occur in many places on the Ea>t River of Pictou ; 

 some of them are of large dimensions, and associated with subordinate 

 veins and concretions of pyrolusite or manganese ore. (4.) In the Lower 

 Carboniferous, on Sutherland's River, there is a remarkable vein of 

 crystalline spathic iron ore or carbonate of iron, which will no doubt 

 eventually be worked in connection with the other deposits. 



In Cape Breton, extensive discoveries of hematite are reported on 

 the East Bay of the Bras d'Or, and in other localities not distant 

 from the collieries of the east part of that island. Valuable deposits 

 of limonite are reported at Brookfield and Old Barns, in Colchester 

 County, and further discoveries of magnetic ore have been made 

 in the bed of iron ores associated with the Oriskany formation at 

 Nictaux and Moose River. 



Beds of clay ironstone, which occur in the Carboniferous of Nova 

 Scotia, have naturally attracted little attention in the presence of those 



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