AND THE MANNER OP WORKING THEM. 19 



can be profitably washed by the hydraulic method, while the 

 labor of two men, with a proper jet of water, suffices to wash one 

 thousand bushels in a day, which in a deposit like that of Riviere 

 du Loup would contain about seventy- three pennyweights of gold. 

 It is probable however that a certain portion of the finer gold 

 dust, which is collected in the ordinary process, would be lost in 

 working on the larger scale. It has already been shown that the 

 gold is not confined to the gravel of the river channels, and the 

 alluvial flats. The beds of interstratified clay, sand, and gravel, 

 which occur on the banks of the Metgermet, were found to contain 

 gold throughout their whole thickness of fifty feet, and even 

 though its proportion were to be many times less than in the 

 gravel of the Riviere du Loup, these thick deposits, which extend 

 over great areas, might be profitably worked by the hydraulic 

 method. The fall in most of the tributaries of the Chaudiere and of 

 the St. Francis throughout the auriferous region, is such that it 

 will not be difficult to secure a supply of water with a sufficient 

 head, without a very great expenditure in the construction of 

 canals ; and it may reasonably be expected that before long the 

 deposits of gold-bearing earth, which are so widely spread over 

 southeastern Canada, will be made economically available." 



T. s. H. 



Art. III. — On the Parallelism of the Quebec Gfroup with the 

 Llandeilo of England and Australia, and with the Chazy 

 and Calciferous formations ; by E. Billings, F.G.S. 



{Read before the Nat. Hist, Society of Montreal, 3rd Feb, 1863.) 



In the following paper, it is proposed to review some of the 

 more prominent facts and opinions relating to the age of the Que- 

 bec group, as compared with certain other formations in Europe, 

 Australia, and America, whose true position is well established. 

 During the last four years, great progress has been made towards 

 the solution of this problem, and a general conclusion has been 

 arrived at, which I believe will stand the test of time. 

 But the subject is far from being exhausted. There yet 

 remain numerous secondary and collateral questions of more or 

 less difficulty, which can be only decided by much further inves- 

 tigation in the field. In the meantime, the tract of country where- 

 in these rocks are most extensively developed, has become of 



