H. S. POOLE ON THE GOLD-LEADS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 307 



21. The Gold-leads of Noya Scotia. By Henet S. Poole, Esq., 



M.A., F.G.S., Government Inspector of Mines. (Head March 



12, 1879.) 



[Abridged.] 



The character of the anriferous rocks of N'ova Scotia was a subject 

 of some discussion a few years ago*, when it was suggested that 

 the gold obtained was from " quartz bods of contemporaneous age 

 with the quartzite and the slate with which they are interstra- 

 tified." 



Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, reporting on this province the year before 

 the subject was brought to the attention of this Society, wrote : — 

 " So far as my present observation goes, I think that to describe the 

 gold-lodes otherwise than as inters tratified beds would be to give a 

 false notion of their geognostic relations. The laminated structure 

 of many of the lodes, and the intercalation between their layers of 

 thin continuous films or layers of argillite, can hardly be explained 

 in any other way than by supposing these lodes to have been formed 

 by successive deposition at what was, at the time, the surface of the 

 earth." 



This description well expresses the appearance of our gold-dis- 

 tricts ; but the theory that the " leads/' as the lodes are locally called, 

 are contemporary beds with the slates and quartzite has not since 

 been generally accepted ; nor has it gained ground with the further 

 knowledge derived from working, nor been adopted by any of the 

 miners, among whom are men experienced in other gold-producing 

 countries. 



My position having enabled me to visit frequently the several dis- 

 tricts and see the leads in their varying stages of exploitation, I 

 have kept in mind the theory in question, and especially examined 

 the relation of the leads to the containing rocks. Some of my 

 observations I have expressed in the following notes. 



Surface-geology of the Gold-fields. 



The general features of the districts, and the position of the leads 

 in relation to the country and rocks, may be thus briefly sketclied. 

 Along the whole Atlantic seaboard of Nova Scotia, from Seaterie to 

 Cape Sable, Palaeozoic rocks extend. The lines of stratification have 

 an almost universally east-and-west course, and, generally speaking, 

 are parallel with the coast-hne and with the axes of upheaval, not 

 only of the hill-ranges, but likewise of the anticlinal folds that bring 

 the gold-leads to the surface. The leads also conform, with almost 

 unvarying persistency, with the strike of the slates and quartzite- 

 beds, following even the plications of the strata with remarkable 

 regularity, thus giving rise to the idea that they might be contem- 

 poraneous beds and not intrusive veins. 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxvi. p. 477. 



