134 Mineralogy and Geology of a part of Nova Scotia. 



The next place to be described was the subject of our own 

 examination ; and from the great variety of its productions, 

 deserves the particular attention of the mineralogist. 



Cape D'Or, situated at the mouth of the Basin of Mines, 

 presents a mural precipice, attaining, in some places, an ele- 

 vation of four hundred feet above the level of the sea ; and 

 is composed of amorphous and irregularly columnar trap, 

 resting on amygdaloid and brecciated greenstone or trap 

 tuff. From the yielding nature of the two last mentioned 

 rocks, which form the base of the precipice, deep caverns 

 and irregular arches have been formed beneath the superin- 

 cumbent rock, by the beating of the angry surges against 

 the walls, while a shelving platform of trap tutf remains be- 

 Jow the surface of the water, and running down beneath the 

 waves, is left exposed only by remarkably low tides. This 

 trap tuff is a breccia composed of angular and irregularly 

 rounded masses of compact greenstone, amygdaloid and red 

 sandstone, united by a softer cement of the same substances. 

 The sandstone at this place occupies but a small proportion 

 of the breccia. The crevices in this rock are frequently oc- 

 cupied by irregular masses of native copper, which generally 

 are indented by the surrounding matrix. They are rarely 

 arborescent, and never distinctly crystallized. Where expo- 

 sed to the action of the waves, the copper is always bright, 

 and may be seen for some distance beneath the water ; but, 

 where it is beyond their reach, it is usually coated with an in- 

 crustation of the carbonate or oxide of copper. The individ- 

 ual pieces seldom weigh more than one or two ounces, but 

 masses are said to have been found lying detached among 

 the fragments of rock, one of which weighed fifteen pounds. 

 The name of this cape doubtless originated in the supposi- 

 tion that this metal was gold, and was bestowed by the 

 French emigrants, who were the first Europeans that peo- 

 pled Nova Scotia. The brilliancy and unusually yellow 

 color of this copper might easily have caused this error, as it 

 led us to suspect it might be an alloy of that or some other 

 metal ; — but on chemical examination it was found to dis- 

 solve entirely in diluted nitric acid, and gave no precipitate 

 when tested with muriate of soda, or when largely diluted 

 with water, or when treated to excess of saturation with aqua 

 ammonise. It does not contain, therefore, any gold, silver, 

 antimony or iron, the only metals suspected to be present. 

 The copper is confined, exclusively, to the brecciated and 



