Mineralogy and Geology of apart of Nova Scotia. 203 



traction for the substance of the vein, introduced into the 

 rent, and has become so intimately mixed with it, that they 

 both appear to be one and the same substance. (See Wer- 

 ner on Veins, p. 90.) This theory, after all, presupposes the 

 rock to have been in a soft stale immediately before, or to 

 have been rendered soft by the introduction of the present 

 contents of the bed or vein, (for it applies to either,) free- 

 dom of motion, among the particles of substances, being al- 

 ways necessary to their intimate combination. We should, 

 therefore, on these grounds, supported m the theory by the 

 additional testimony of the fossil organic remains being pre- 

 cisely the same, both in the slate and in the ore, be inclined 

 to consider them of nearly contemporaneous formation, their 

 iiatimate union having perhaps, been effected by the heat of 

 the neighboring trap rocks of subsequent origin ; of whose 

 evident calorific effects on this bed of ore, at another place, 

 where they nearly approximate to each other, we shall speak 

 more particularly in a succeeding page. 



The ore is traceable, for about a mile and a half, towards 

 the Nictau River, and an iron bar is in all places sufficient to 

 reach the bed, by piercing the overlying soil. A small 

 opening has been made into it on the estate of Mr. Heaton, 

 where we were unable to examine it particularly. 



On ascending the high land from the falls on Nictau Riv- 

 er, we met with a rock of a granular structure, inclining to 

 foliated, breaking with a dull, earthy fracture, and having 

 a pale green, or greenish grey color. It contains imbedded 

 crystals of felspar, and is evidently a dyke of indistinct 

 greenstone porphyry, as we have represented it on the map, 

 intercepting the strata of slate, and perhaps cutting off" the 

 ore bed also. Were not this the case, the ore would show 

 itself in the bed of the river, which it would necessarily cross, 

 unless obstructed by some intervening barrier, as the direc- 

 tion of the two is nearly at right angles. On examining the 

 river however, either side of which for several miles above 

 the falls, presents naked strata of the slate extending to a 

 considerable height, no traces of the ore could be discovered. 

 It seems almost certain therefore, that the ore bed is inter- 

 rupted by this dyke of porphyry, the direction of the latter 

 being such as to cut it off", entering the north side of the hill: 

 though owing to a small patch of the rock only, having been 

 left naked by the passage of water over the face of the hill, 

 the actual meeting of the two, or the place of their intersec- 



