712 report — 1884. 



Granite roclrs stretch irregularly the whole length of the gold fields. The 

 granite is evidently intrusive, and is older than the carboniferous period. 



The auriferous veins vary in thickness up to six feet ; the usual size of those 

 ■worked is only four to fifteen inches. The quartz is often crystalline and banded. 

 The veins have the same strike as the enclosing rocks and were at first considered 

 to be beds, similar to those known to be auriferous in the Carolinas and elsewhere ; 

 but the fact of their containing portions of the enclosing slate, and of occasionally 

 cutting obliquely across the bedding, proves that they are true veins. 



The distribution of the gold in the veins may be termed capricious. While the 

 veins for a long distance may be auriferous, there is generally one zone or several 

 zones of quartz much richer than that on each side. These zones or ' pay streaks ' 

 do not appear to be the effect of any law that has yet been applied to our mines. 



Judging from the available fossil evidence, which however is small, the gold- 

 bearing beds appear to be of Cambrian age. 



The quartz mills of Nova Scotia are similar to those in general use in Australia 

 and California. The cost of mining varies from eighty cents in the open cast slate 

 belts, carrying auriferous quartz, up to fifteen dollars a ton in small veins, three or 

 four inches wide, in very hard rock. The cost per ton of crushing with water- 

 power varies from sixty cents to one dollar ; with steam power the cost is somewhat 

 higher. 



Attention is now being turned to low grade ores, that is to say, beds' of 

 auriferous slate with veins of quartz, yielding averages of four to eight penny- 

 weights of gold to the ton. 



During the year 1883 the miners averaged two dollars eighty-four cents a 

 day from 25,954 tons of quartz, yielding ten pennyweights and twenty-one grains 

 of gold per ton, and looking at the large extent of country containing proved 

 auriferous strata, the author anticipates a permanent and profitable future for the 

 gold mines of Nova Scotia. 



2. A Comparison of the Distinctive Features of N"vva Scotian Coal-fields. 

 By Edwin Gilpin, Jan., A.M., F.G.S., F.E.S.C. 



The Carboniferous Rocks of Nova Scotia cover a large part of the northern side 

 of the province, and are exposed in unusually good sections. The presence of 

 workable coal-seams has led to many surveys, &c, which have resulted in a good 

 knowledge of their structure. The best known and most continuous sections are 

 those of the Joggins in Cumberland county, and of the Cape Breton coal-field. 

 There are numerous coal-fields, the most important being those of Cumberland, 

 Pictou, and Cape Breton. 



The presence of east and west synclinal folds is noticeable in each of these 

 districts. In the Sydney coal-field these foldings are on the prolongation of the 

 ranges of the pre-carboniferous rocks, and die out as they recede from them. In 

 all these coal-fields these flexures are not accompanied by serious faults, except 

 where the older measures have interrupted or complicated them. Thus on the 

 north side of the Cumberland coal-field the measures are comparatively free from 

 disturbances where no pre-carboniferous strata appear, while numerous dislo- 

 cations are found on the south side, where they rest almost directly on the 

 Silurian slates of the Cobequid mountains. 



In the Sydney coal-field the sections show the ancient centre of the coal-field 

 where the maximum of coal and the minimum of strata occur, from which it 

 would appear that the distributing currents carried material principally from the 

 north and the south ; the source of part of the detritus being the bordering Lower 

 Carboniferous strata. The slight difference of deposition, however, is marked by 

 the presence of beds of bituminous and fossiliferous limestone, which, chiefly 

 developed in the centre, extend almost from end to end of the district. 



In the Pictou district a noticeable point is a horizon in the lower part of the 

 section containing 1,500 feet of shale, and coal in beds up to 38 feet in thickness. 

 This curious formation is referred to the presence of a contemporaneous barrier-reef 

 of shingle formed from the Millstone Grit, and allowing under its shelter an im- 



