55 



many of the masses of black slate and limestone were found to be fossil- 

 iferous, but tbe determination of their organic remains showed that 

 these clearly belonged to a lower system and that they were in fact of 

 the same horizon as the limestones and slates of E-ichmond and vicinity, 

 whose Cambro-Silurian age had been determined some years before, 

 while the stratigraphical working out of the district proved that these 

 rocks were clearly superimposed upon the quartzites and slates of the 

 Chaudiere gold series and upon a similar set of rocks which extended 

 along the border of Maine and New Hampshire. 



Although for a long time after the first discovery of the gold in 

 the Chaudiere district its source was unknown, a series of investigations 

 and assays, conducted by Dr. Hunt and Mr. Michel and published in 

 1866, clearly pi^oved the auriferous character of many of the quartz 

 veins of this district. Subsequent investigations have shown that the 

 principle now recognized in the gold fields of Nova Scotia, viz., that the 

 I'ich gold leads are for the most part confined to the vicinity of the anti- 

 elinals, in all probability applies to the similar rocks of Quebec ; since 

 at Ditton, where rich alluvial workings also exist, the gold is generally 

 found in the greatest quantity in close proximity to the anticlinal areas 

 which are there well defined. On the Chaudiere the same principle 

 will doubtless be found to apply, though here probably some of the anti- 

 clinals are overturned and their location will in consequence be more 

 diflS.cult. 



The establishing of the horizon of these gold-bearing slates and 

 quartzites as the equivalent of those so long worked in Nova Scotia is 

 very important, since it should tend to make more simple the location 

 of future operations in this direction. In the area occupied by these 

 rocks most of the coarse gold yet found has been obtained in close prox- 

 imity to well defined quartz leads, and much of it has without doubt 

 been derived from the decomposition of these veins, some of which can 

 be traced for a considerable distance ; while over the great area of the 

 overlying Cambro-Silurian sediments of the eastern basin, though gold 

 is found at a number of points, and in fact can be washed from the 

 gravels of nearly evei-y stream, this gold is always fine in character, and 

 its distribution is apparently due either to glacial action or to the- 

 conditions that succeeded that period, by which the sands and gravels 



