ON THE GOLD MINES OF CANADA. 13 



Art. II. — 0?? the Gold Mines of Canada, and the manner of 

 working them. 



The existence of gold in the sands of the Chaudiere valley, to 

 the south of Quebec, w?.s, so far as we are aware, first announced to 

 the world by General Baddeley (then Lieutenant) of the Royal 

 Engineers, in the year 1835, and by him communicated to Prof. 

 Silliman. (see American Journal of Science for that year, vol. 

 xxviii. p.] 12.) In 1847, and the three or four years following, 

 careful examinations were made in that region by the Geological 

 Survey, and it was found that the precious metal is not confined 

 to the valley of the Chaudiere, but exists in the superficial deposits 

 of a wide area. 



The source of the gold throughout this extent appears to have 

 been the breaking up of the crystalline schists of the region, in 

 which the metal has occasionally been met with. One example 

 of this is in a vein of quartz in clay state, in the parish of St. 

 Francis, on the Chaudiere, where it occurs with argentiferous gale- 

 na, arsenical pyrites, cubic iron pyrites and sulphuret of zinc 



the latter two ores containing a notable proportion of gold. The 

 results, of assays of all these materials will be found in the re- 

 ports of the Geological Survey for 1853, page 370. During the 

 past year, another vein of quartz, about one hundred yards from 

 this last has yielded very rich and beautiful specimens of native 

 gold, also accompanied by arsenical pyrites. The precious metal 

 occurs again not far from the Harvey Hill copper mine, in Leeds 

 at a locality known as Nutbrown's shaft, which is sunk on a vein 

 of bitter-spar, holding specular iron, vitreous copper ore, and native 

 gold, generally in small grains or scales. Some specimens from 

 this locality, however, have weighed as much as a pennyweight. 

 The only attempts as yet made at gold-mining in Canada have been 

 in the diluvial deposits. We extract from the General Report of 

 the Geological Survey of Canada, now in press, and soon to appear, 

 the following details with regard to these deposits, together with 

 the results of some of the trials hitherto made to work them and 

 suggestions as to the best mode of obtaining the gold. 



" These rocks of eastern Canada may be traced south-west- 

 wardly through New England, along the Appalachian chain, to 

 the state of Georgia, and furnish gold in greater or less quantity in 

 nearly every part of their extension. They constitute the great 

 gold-bearing formation of eastern North America, which in its 



