58 HOW ON LIMESTONES AND MARBLE. 



of which, if I am correctly informed, receives a Provincial grant for 

 its support. 



With such examples before us, we may surely venture to hope, 

 that Nova Scotia never baclovard in promoting whatever has a 

 beneficial tendency, will not refuse to extend a helping hand to this 

 Institute, Avhose publication of its transactions every year is diffus- 

 ing, at home and abroad, much valuable information respecting the 

 resources and capabilities of this fine Province, but whose endeav- 

 ours to become of more extended practical utility, are paralysed by 

 the want of the pecuniary means, requisite to enable it to carry out 

 effectually the objects it has in view. 



Art. VII. Notes on the Economic Mineralogy of Nova 

 Scotia: Part III.; Limestone and Marble. By Prof. How, 

 D. C. L., University of King's College, Windsor. 



{Read Feb. 6, 1866.) 

 Limestones. — These are found in practically inexhaustible 

 quantities in the Province, where there is estimated to be a thick- 

 ness of thirteen thousand feet of the various strata comprising the 

 carboniferous system, among which limestones are frequent, especi- 

 ally in the lower carboniferous beds, Avhich in fact consist largely of 

 them and measure six thousand feet in thickness. This system is 

 developed almost exclusively to the north and north-east of the cap- 

 ital, in which part of the Province upwards of eighty beds of lime- 

 stone are indicated in Dawson's geological map; the rest of Nova 

 Scotia, including the whole western portion and the southern shore, 

 has but two small patches of carboniferous rocks. The limestones 

 have sometimes been thrown by metamorphic action into the crystal- 

 line state, and frequently converted under these circumstances into 

 marble, so that many varieties of this material are met with. Geo- 

 logical details respecting this deposit are given in DaAvson's Acadian 

 Geology. 



The economic value of the limestones will probably always be 

 found in the m akin s: of lime for washes, mortar and cement, and for 

 manuring,"and in their use as fiuxes in iron smelting, since the great 

 abundance of excellent freestone will almost preclude their use as a 

 building material except in rubble Movk and niaking foundations. As 



