58 THE CAMBRIAN. [aptu 81. 



Carolina. 1 In a paper presented to the Geological Society of London, 2 

 and subsequently published in the report on the Sherbrooke gold dis- 

 trict of Nova Scotia, Prof. Hind describes the gold-bearing rocks of 

 Nova Scotia as follows: 



The gold-bearing rocks of Nova Scotia are of Lower Silurian age, and rest either 

 on Hnronian strata or, where these have been removed by denudation, on the old 

 Lauren tian gneiss. The gold is found chielly in beds of auriferous quartz of con- 

 temporaneous age with the slates and quartzites composing the mass of the series, 

 which in Nova Scotia is 12,000 feet thick, and the auriferous beds are worked, in one 

 district or another, through a vertical space of 6,000 feet. 3 



In a report on the gneissoid series underlying the gold-bearing rocks 

 of Nova Scotia the same writer 4 states that he has provisionally referred 

 the gold-bearing series to the Lower Silurian, but that conclusive evi- 

 dence derived from fossils has not been obtained from the gold-bearing 

 slates and quartzites. Since the discovery of the forms resembling the 

 Palaeotrochus of Emmons, noticed in his report on the Waverly dis- 

 trict, he has sent to Mr. Billings slabs containing supposed fossils from 

 the Sherbrooke rocks. Mr. Billings thought that a species of Orthis 

 and an Eospongia were indicated. In describing the gold-bearing 

 rocks under the head of " Lower Silurian" Prof. Hind 5 says : 



The known gold-bearing rocks of Nova Scotia consist of quartzites, sandstones 

 and grits, interstratified with argillaceous slates and tbiu conformable beds of aurif- 

 erous quartz. This portion has an ascertained thickness exceeding 9,000 feet. * * * 

 The thickness of the black slates in Nova Scotia exceeds 3, 000 feet, so that the gokl- 

 bearing rocks of the province have a known thickness of 12,000 feet. 



The essential parts of the description in the last paper are also 

 printed in the American Journal of Science. 6 



In his report on the gold fields of Quebec and Nova Scotia, Dr. A. 

 E. 0. Selwyn 7 speaks of the geological position of the Atlantic coast series 

 of stratified gold-bearing slate and quartzite, stating that all former ob- 

 servers are agreed that they probably belong to the Lower Silurian 

 series. His first impression of them was that they represented the 

 groups known in Britain as the Harlech grit or quartzite, and the 

 Lingula-flag series. He discovered in the gray sandy and flaggy pyri- 

 tous slates at the Oven's Bluffs numerous specimens of the genus 

 Eophyton, and states that Mr. Billings regarded this genus as charac- 

 teristic of the Primodial Siluriau epoch. He then gives an account of 

 the distribution of the genus Eophyton, and in conclusion says : " In 



1 Report on the Waverly Gold District, with geological maps and sections. Halifax, 18G9, p. 61. 



2 On two gneissoid series in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, supposed to be the equivalents of the 

 Huronian (Cambrian) and Laurentian. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, London, vol. 26, 1870, pp. 468-479. 



3 Report on the Sherbrooke gold district, together with a paper on the gneisses of Nova Scotia and 

 an abstract of a paper on gold mining in Nova Scotia. Halifax, N. S., 1870, p. 3. 



4 Preliminary report on a gneissoid series underlying the gold-bearing rocks of Nova Scotia, and 

 supposed to be the equivalent of the Laurentian system. Halifax, N. S., 1870, pp. 14. 



6 Op. cit., p. 8. 



6 On the Laurentian and Huronian series in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Am. Jour. Sci., 2d ser., 

 vol. 49, 1870, pp. 351-353. 



7 Notes and observations on the gold fields of Quebec and Nova Scotia. Geel. Surv. Canada. Report 

 Prog, for 1870-'71, 1872, pp. 268-270. 



