MAEETT — ON THE COPPER MINES AT TILT COVE. 29 



performed by means of a powerful steam engine. A difference is 

 observed in the washing of the copper and of the nickel ores. 

 The former are cleaned and culled by the process of jigging, but 

 the finely crushed Nickel is washed and picked out by means of a 

 graduated sluice, very much in the same manner as the gold wash- 

 ings ; when dry, it is then barrelled up ready for exportation. I 

 was told that thirty tons of this valuable mineral were then ready 

 for shipment. The proprietors, Messrs. Bennett & McKay, are 

 said to have shared, after deducting all expenses, £32,000 of 

 profits between them, for the year 1868. Now that they have all 

 the plant, and with the Nickel vein in full operation, it would be 

 difficult to say how much more important the future results may 

 become. It is said that an offer of £200,000 was made for the 

 Mine by a London Company, which was declined. 



The Geological Surveyor, Mr. Murray, says in one of his 

 reports : * * It would be difficult to imagine a place more conve- 

 niently situated for the commencement of mining operations than 

 this at Tilt Cove. The lofty vertical cliflfs which rise on every side 

 give unmistakable evidence of the presence of mineral wherever it 

 exists ; which, were the ground of a more rounded or gentle cha- 

 racter, would necessarily be more or less concealed. All the work 

 hitherto done has been carried on in drifts at a higher level than 

 Windsor lake, thereby avoiding all necessity for pumping-engines, 

 or danger from inundations ; while the position of the place, by its 

 proximity to the sea, for embarking ore, is in the highest degree 

 advantageous. The rock with which the ore is immediately associ- 

 ated appears to be a chlorite slate, very ferruginous, with seams of 

 serpentine, and having huge intercalated masses of a hard, compact, 

 greenish-grey crystaline rock." 



Perhaps the most remarkable feature of Tilt Cove is the Nickel 

 vein. This is situated in the midst of a ferruginous hill, directly 

 facing the settlement, and which might, without stretch of imagina- 

 tion, be taken for an enormous mass of rusty iron, the refuse of 

 Cyclopean furnaces. 



The whole of the peninsula of * * Notre Dame " is highly- 

 metalliferous, and is almost entirely taken up by adventurers 

 holding mining licences^ or rather licences to search for minerala 



