Proceedings of the Polytechnic Association. 859 



between the overlying strata of the carboniferous system on the 

 northwest and the ocean on the southeast, and having a breadth of 

 from thirty to fifty miles in the wider portions, which, to the north- 

 east, is reduced to not over eight miles. This belt of rocks extends 

 along the Atlantic coast for 250 miles from Cape Sable on the west, 

 to Cape Canseau on the east. Its surface is generally low, rising, 

 however, in some places to 500 feet above the sea, and is in great 

 part rocky and barren. The official returns from this region for the 

 last six years, based on the gold from which the royalty of three per 

 cent has been paid, show a total production of 119,54:1^ ounces, 

 which, valued at twenty dollars per ounce, amounts to $2,390,081. 

 If to this be added the unreported gold, obtained in the first two or 

 three years, we may conclude that the whole product has been equal, 

 in round numbers, to about $2,500,000. This amount is small when 

 compared with the production of regions like California and Austra- 

 lia, where the yield of some single mines surpasses the whole annual 

 production of Kova Scotia. The quartz mines of Victoria, in 1866, 

 employed 14,878 miners, and yielded 521,000 oimces of gold. The 

 mean yield to the ton of quartz was, however, only ten pennyweights 

 sixteen grains, and the produce for each miner about 8570, while for 

 Nova Scotia these amounts were respectively seventeen penny weights 

 twenty-three grains, and $765. The pvoduce for each miner is pro- 

 portionate, n£)t so much to the richness of the quartz as to the skill 

 and economy of the management, which, within the last year, has 

 raised the annual yield per man in Renfew to $895, and in Sher- 

 brooke to $1,592. It may, however, be affirmed that the average 

 yield of gold to the ton of rock, and also to each miner, is greater in 

 Nova Scotia than in any other auriferous region known. It may well 

 excite surprise that so little mining has yet been done in Nova Scotia, 

 where gold is known to be spread over an area of not less than 6,000 

 square miles. The lodes of this region, which are very regular in 

 structm-e, have been shown to preserve their richness to depths of 

 200 and 300 feet, and from their geological relations there is every 

 reason to beHeve will continue unchanged to the greatest attainable 

 depths. To this it may be added that the price of labor is moderate, 

 not exceeding one doUar and twenty-five cents a day in gold, fuel 

 cheap and abundant ; the region is healthful and easily accessible 

 from abroad. 



