Miner alogij and Geology of a part of Nova Scotia. 159 



of houses, for which purpose it is employed in many places, 

 as at Clement's, in Annapolis county. 



The soil resulting from, and lying over this formation is 

 naturally and very perceptibly inferior, to that produced by 

 the disintegration of the trap rocks of the North Mountains, 

 and the neighboring sandstone, its vegetation being less lux- 

 uriant, and requiring for its culture greater labor from the 

 husbandman. This is a fact which a traveller in passing 

 through the country, cannot fail to observe. The soil has 

 been much improved of late years, and the present state of 

 agriculture in Nova Scotia, is much indebted to Mr. John 

 Young, the author of a series of interesting and practical 

 letters published in Halifax under the signature of " Agrico- 

 la," and which resulted in the formation of several agricul- 

 tural societies. 



The continuity of the strata of this rock is interrupted in 

 two places by dykes of green stone porphyry, which, enter- 

 ing the rock nearly at right angles with its stratification, 

 completely cut off, or intercept the bed of iron ore which is 

 continuous and parallel with the strata. We shall notice 

 these dykes more particularly in another place, as also the 

 patch of granite represented on the map in Annapolis coun- 

 ty, which is undoubtedly subordinate to the clay slate, and 

 all the other rocks in Nova Scotia. 



The bed of iron ore before alluded to is apparently six- 

 teen feet wide, though from its not having been explored at 

 the time we visited it, so as to present the contiguous strata 

 of slate, we cannot state the exact width with certainty. 

 Its direction, like that of the strata in which it is included, is 

 north 60° east, and is traceable for a considerable distance 

 into the forest, until it is entirely obscured by the soil and un- 

 derbrush. — The ore on the surface from which considerable 

 quantities may be detached, is usually of a compact struc- 

 ture, sometimes inchning to slaty. Its external color is brown 

 and reddish brown, but its streak and powder are between 

 brick and blood red ; consequently, it is in the state of the 

 red or peroxide of iron. It is destitute of magnetism and 

 metallic brilliancy. Its specific gravity is on an average 

 4.00 — hence, according to Rinman's method of calculation, 

 it contains fifty per cent of pure iron, a very near approxima- 

 tion to the truth, as proved on assaying the ore in the cruci- 

 ble, and making an allowance for the carbon combining 

 with it in the process. Some specimens of this ore in which 



