Dr. How on the Mineralogy of Nova Scotia. 339 



thin bed : the mineral or rock was of a blue-black colour, and 

 separated into pencils in our hands in the most perfect manner. 



Variegated Soft Slate. — Among the Devonian rocks at Beech 

 Hill near Kentville, King's co., is found a very soft mineral which 

 somewhat resembles the pencil-stone just described; it is ex- 

 ceedingly easily cut with a knife, writes well on a slate, adheres 

 slightly to the tongue, and has the same elements, as shown by 

 a qualitative analysis, the peroxide of iron, however, being much 

 more abundant (the alkalies were not tested for). It glistens on 

 a fresh surface as if from the presence of minute scales of mica. 

 Its characteristic quality is that of showing, when cut to a smooth 

 surface, sets of concentric bands of different colours (which may 

 be described as white, grey, yellow, and red, and tints made up 

 of mixtures of these) and varying thicknesses about a centre of 

 a long oval shape. The colours arise of course from variations 

 in the amount and state of oxidation of the iron present. The 

 material is very much admired, and would form handsome inlaid 

 work not subject to friction. 



Indian Pipe-stone. — I mention here as probably in composition 

 analogous to the preceding, a dark-coloured nearly black mi- 

 neral, found on the Montengan shore in the district of Clare, 

 Digby co., in the extreme west of the province, which was used 

 by the Micmac Indians for making their stone pipes. The rocks 

 at Montengan Cave, Poole describes (Report on Gold Fields, Nova 

 Scotia, 1862) as slates of varying hardness : he could not find 

 the seam from which the specimen of pipe- stone given him, to 

 which I am now referring, was obtained. The pipe-stone of 

 Dana (Mineralogy, p. 252) is clay-slate, a greyish-coloured 

 variety from Oregon having been analyzed by Thomson, and is 

 mentioned in connexion with Catlinite, described as a reddish 

 claystone. 



Bitumen in Calcite. — This interesting addition to the minerals 

 of the province was made by W. Barnes, Esq., Mining Engineer 

 of Halifax, who kindly furnished me with specimens, and gave 

 me some details as to its mode of occurrence. It is found in 

 Inverness co., Cape Breton, in an elevated range of altered rocks 

 in which the lower carboniferous strata are apparent. Limestone 

 is abundant but very much altered, and rests at a high angle of 

 inclination on altered black shales containing much pyrites; 

 gypsum also occurs in the neighbourhood. 



The mineral is dull black externally ; it breaks with a con- 

 choidal fracture, giving a very brilliant jet-black surface. It is 

 scattered in separate masses on the surface of a highly siliceous 

 rock, containing pyrites among calcite in six-sided prisms and 

 in dog-tooth crystals. Some of these masses are an inch or 

 more in length, of rounded outline, and lie free ; others, smaller, 



Z2 



