310 H. S. POOLE ON THE GOLD-LEADS OP NOVA SCOTIA. 



stringers entering the footwall. The quartz from them collected 

 together yielded 7 ounces of gold. 



Sooner or later in the working of the regular " bedded" leads ir- 

 regularities characteristic of veins are met with. Late operations 

 at Waverley on the Union lead, one of those referred to in proof of 

 the bedded origin of the leads, have shown the quartz to cease, while 

 the line of fracture is seen to continue its regular course. In one 

 stope a large " horse " of quartzite cut oif the quartz ; in another 

 the quartz formed a compact " roll " 8 feet wide, from which rami- 

 fied into the footwall a number of suckers. 



In the course of working the parallel leads a layer of quartz is 

 sometimes noticed to " take in " in the adjoining bed of slate. One 

 such layer was opened at a depth of 600 feet in the hanging wall of 

 the AVeliington lead. 



In both slate and quartzite walls of leads, crevices containing little 

 or no quartz occasionally contain gold. One fiat-lyiug crack in the 

 quartzite wall of a strong barren lead at Uniacke gave 3 ounces of 

 gold, where there was only a little iron-rust and no quartz visible. 

 Gold is also found in the slate walls of rich leads ; and from some 

 mines more slate than quartz goes to the stamp-mill. It is found 

 associated in the leads with calcite, felsite, mica, chlorite, with 

 common, magnetic, and arsenical pyrites, with copper-pyrites, galena, 

 and zinc blende. Crystals of gold have also been found, and gold 

 imbedded in crystals of quartz, in cavities of leads. 



There are yet other characters suggestive of true veins. Often 

 there is a narrow band of crushed slate next the lead, called " gouge," 

 on account of the ease with which it is extracted by a thin long 

 pointed pick. Its fissile nature is probably due to disturbance at 

 the time the lead was formed. Again, these leads are known to taper 

 out, and what may be called their continuation to start in the side 

 slate, and expand to the original thickness from beyond the termi- 

 nation of the quartz at first worked. 



While many of the gold-bearing leads are regular and persistent 

 for hundreds of feet and lie parallel with wonderful uniformity, a 

 careful following shows local troubles. Eolls and barrels and off- 

 shoots have been mentioned, and also their apparent influence on 

 the productiveness. Breaks and dislocations of the strata are not 

 uncommon ; and while many undoubtedly are of later age, some 

 appear to be contemporaneous. A head or fault divides the Suther- 

 land lead at Sherbrooke without shifting the strata ; and on one side 

 of it there are more bands and a greater thickness of quartz than on 

 the other. 



Another character, unmistakably that of a true vein, is occa- 

 sionally met with in the " bedded " leads. Por example, in the so- 

 called Barton lead at Tangier, at one spot the writer saw in the 

 middle of the quartz a flake of slate about 10 feet long and an inch 

 thick. The flake had rough edges, and had evidently parted from 

 the hanging wall ; for a trail of fragments at its ends marked its 

 course from a depression in the wall, fragments of slate, too, are 

 often found in the leads, lying in every direction ; in parts films of 



