8 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



silted into the fissures of the rocks below high water 

 mark. The gold thus obtained had of course come from 

 the cliff detritus — the result of the incessant dash of 

 Atlantic waves over a long period of time — and was soon 

 exhausted: the claims on the cliff, however have proved 

 valuable. Then followed the discovery of the highly- 

 prolific barrel-shaped quartz at Allen's farm, afterwards 

 known as the Waverley diggings, of the Indian Harbour 

 and Wine Harbour gold-fields on the Eastern Coast 

 beyond Tangier, and of others to the westward, at Gold 

 Eiver and La Have. Farther back from the coast, and 

 towards the edge of the slate formation, the precious 

 metal has been found at Mount Uniacke, and in the most 

 northern extension of the granitic metamorphic strata 

 towards the Bay of Fundy, at a place called Little 

 Chester. 



Though no small excitement naturally attended the 

 simultaneous and hitherto unexpected discovery of such 

 extensive gold areas, the development of the Nova- 

 Scotian gold mines has been conducted with astonishing 

 decorum and order : the robberies and bloodshed incident 

 on such a pursuit in wilder parts of America, or at the 

 Antipodes, have been here totally unknown. The indi- 

 viduals who prospected and took up claims, soon finding 

 the difficulty of remunerating themselves by their own 

 unaided labour, disposed of them for often very con- 

 siderable sums to the companies of Nova-Scotians, 

 Germans, and Americans, which had been formed to 

 work the business methodically. Though constantly seen 

 glistening as specks in the quartz, close to the surface, 

 the metal was seldom disclosed in nuggets of great value, 

 and the operation of crushing alone (extracting the gold 



