BELT OF AURIFEROUS COUNTRY, 



331 



AltliougL. gold-bearing arsemcal pyiites is very widely disseminated 

 throughout tlie Hastings district, it appears to be more especially 

 abundant in the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh concessions of 

 Marmora, in wliich it forms a series of roughly parallel zones, 

 running in a general N.N.W. and S.S.E. direction, the course in 

 most exposures being about N 20° — 30°W. The gold-bearing ore 

 consists of a mixture of arsenical pyrites and quartz, and it 

 appears at first sight to be in the form of regular veins. This 

 appearance, however, is probably deceptive, as the bands of ore run 

 parallel with the stratification, and thus appear to be the analogues of 

 the beds of magnetic iron ore which occur in these gneissoid rocks at 

 other levels. It is not proposed in this communication to enter 

 upon a discussion of their origin, but the inference may be hazarded 

 that they will be found to be connected here and there with 

 undoubted veins of similar composition. Their position in the 

 locality more especially referred to here, — namely, in the more 

 southern portions of the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh concessions 

 of Marmora — -is exhibited in the annexed general section. 





In this section, the beds marked A are Laurentian strata, dipping, 

 as regards the portion of country here shown, towards the west or 

 south-west, but forming, actu^ally, the eastern half of one of the 

 numerous synclinal areas which occur throughout the Hastings coun- 

 try. The existence of these synclinals was intimated many years 

 ago by Sir William Logan, but was first definitely established by 

 the later researches of Mr. Yennor, of the Canadian Geological 

 Survey. These Laurentian strata comprise, in this locality, a high 

 ridge of syenitic rock, (marked H in the section) forming part 

 of the so-called Huckleberry Mountains, or Red Hills of the dis- 

 trict, and a succeeding series of gneissoid, ferruginous, and dolomitic 

 beds, more or less hoi-nblendic and micaceous. The Huckleberry 

 ridge at this place, although apparently destitute in itself of stratifi- 

 cation, is the axis of an anticlinal, separating the Marmora from the 



