[330] 



NOTE ON A 



REMARKABLE BELT OF AURIFEROUS COUNTRY 



IN THE TOWNSHIP OF MARMORA, IN ONTARIO. 



By E. J. CHAt-MAN Ph. D., 



PROFESSOR OF MINEEALOGY AND GEOLOGY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO, AND CONSULTING 



MINING ENGINEER. 



The occurrence of auriferous rock throughout the greater portion 

 of the district of North Hastings, in Ontario, has long been known ; 

 but much discredit has been thrown upon this region as a source of 

 gold-supply by the extravagant and too often baseless statements, 

 put forth from time to time, respecting the so-called " gold quartz " 

 of the district ; as well as by the general want of success that has 

 attended the gold mining operations carried on more especially in 

 Madoc and adjoining townships. Much of this has arisen from a 

 mistaken notion respecting the true gold-bearing ore of the district : 

 or, in other words, from the almost universal assumption that gold 

 was to be looked for only in association with quartz. Many of the 

 quartz bands or veins of North Hastings undoubtedly contain a 

 small amount of free gold ; but it cannot be too strongly insisted 

 upon, that, in these pure quartz deposits, gold is only accidentally 

 present, whilst it occurs invariably, and generally in paying quantity, 

 in every vein or other deposit in which, in this district, arsenical 

 pyrites is contained. So far as regards the district in question and the 

 surrounding country, I am convinced from an overwhelming mass of 

 evidence that the only matters likely to prove a permanent source of 

 gold-supply are these arsenical ores. They are always, it is true, in 

 a quartz gangue ; but all the gold, apart from a few small specks or 

 nuggets, seemingly separated or rendered free by contact with the 

 quartz, is contained in the arsenical mineral. I have proved this by 

 numerous assays made on samples of ore obtained personally from 

 various localities in the Hastings region and adjacent parts of Canada. 

 In many of these samples, the mispickel, when carefully separated 

 from the accompanying quartz, has yielded an amount of gold 

 eqxiivalent to more than five or six ounces in the ton, whilst the 

 quartz itself, apart, perhaps, from an occasional speck of free gold, 

 has proved entirely barren. 



