Mineralogy and Geology of apart of Nova Scotia. 151 



cause we are not informed. No rock salt has ever been 

 found in the vicinity of these springs, nor has the rock any 

 perceptible salt taste. We must therefore refer the origin 

 and the occurrence of these salt springs to such unexplained 

 phenomena as are assigned to those in the w^estern part of 

 the state of New-York, so ably discussed by Prof Eaton in 

 his " Geological and Agricultural Survey of the District ad- 

 joining the Erie Canal." See Parti, p. 109. sqq. The ex- 

 istence of salt springs in this formation indicates it to be 

 identical with the saliferous rock of Phillips and Conybeare, 

 and allies it to the extensive deposit described by Prof Ea- 

 ton as existing in the western part of the state of New-York, 

 in his excellent survey of the Erie Canal, and in the Amer. 

 Journ. of Science, vol. xiv. No. 1, p. 148, as existing on the 

 banks of the Connecticut, and as supporting the Palisades 

 on the Hudson river. 



Pursuing this formation eastwardly in the direction of its 

 strata, we meet with occasional beds of coal, not of any 

 practical worth, and offering no remarkable geological pe- 

 culiarities. On the north bank of the West river, where the 

 Kempt bridge crosses this stream, a bed of bituminous coal 

 with lignites, about four or five inches wide, occurs in the 

 cliff of sandstone, a section of which is formed by the bed of 

 the river. At this place, which we mention on account of 

 its vicinity to the road from Truro to Pictou, rendering it ac- 

 cessible to travellers, occur many of the rehcs of culmiferous 

 plants before noticed at Cumberland mine. 



Carriboo river, in the township of New Philadelphia, seven 

 miles north of the flourishing town of Pictou, presents a field 

 of great interest both to the mineralogist and the miner. On 

 the banks of this stream, two miles from where it empties 

 into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, occurs a bed of copper ore, 

 included between the strata of sandstone passing into coarse 

 conglomerate. It is associated with lignites of enormous 

 size, which generally lie over the copper ore. The conglom- 

 erate consists of smooth rounded masses of quartz of various 

 colors, siliceous slate, clay slate, and felspar, varying in size 

 from that of a filbert to three or four inches in diameter ; 

 they are united by an argillaceous cement. The sandstone 

 differs only with regard to the size of the component ingre- 

 dients, which diminish until they are scarcely distinguishable 

 by the naked eye. These rocks rise from the river to the 

 height of fifteen or twenty feet above its level, and form 



