THE MARITIME PROVINCES. 



by amalgamation with quicksilver) proved remunerative 

 in the long run and when carried out extensively. 



At the commencement of this important era in the 

 economical history of Nova Scotia, the interest attached 

 to the pursuit of gold-digging may be well imagined. 

 Farm labourers, and farmers themselves, deserted their 

 summer's occupation and hastened to the localities pro- 

 claimed as gold-fields. Shanties, camps, and stores 

 appeared amongst the rough rocks which strewed the 

 wilderness in the depths of the forest. At Tangier, when 

 I isited it (the same summer in which gold was first 

 discovered there), a street had risen, with some three 

 hundred inhabitants, composed of rude frame houses, 

 bark camps, and tents. Flags flaunted o>'er the stores 

 and groggeries, and the characteristic American " store " 

 displayed its motley merchandise as in the settlements. 

 Anything could be here purchased, from a pickaxe to a 

 crinoline. A similar scene was shortly afterwards pre- 

 sented at the Oven's Head ; whilst at the Waverley 

 diggings, only ten miles distant from the capital of Nova 

 Scotia, a perfect town has sprung up. This latter locality 

 is famous for the singular formation of its gold-bearing 

 quartz lodes, termed " The Barrels." These barrels were 

 discovered on the hill-side at a small distance below the 

 surface, and consisted of long trunk- like shafts of quartz 

 enclosed in quartzite. They were arranged in parallel 

 lines, and looked very like the tops of drains exposed for 

 repair-. At first they were found to be exceedingly rich 

 in gold, some really fine nuggets having been displayed ; 

 but subsequent research has proved them a failure, and 

 the barrel formation has been abandoned for quartz 

 occurring in veins of ordinary position. A German com- 



