THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Jan. l, 1865. 



252 



ON THE GOLD MINES OF CANADA, AND THE MANNER OF 

 WORKING THEM. 



BY T. STERRY HUNT, F.R.S. 



The existence of gold in the sands of the Chaudhke valley, to the south 

 of Quebec, was, so far as we were aware, first announced to the world 

 by General Baddeley (then Lieutenant), of the Royal Engineers, in the 

 year 1835, and by him communicated to Professor Silliman. (See 

 < American Journal of Science for that year, vol. xxviii., p. 1 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 Chaudie"re, 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 galena, arsenical pyrites, cubic iron pyrites, 

 and sulphuret of zinc, — the latter two ores containing a notable propor- 

 tion of gold. The results of assays of all these materials will be found 

 in the reports of the Geological Survey for 1853, p. 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 the follow- 

 ing 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-westwardly 

 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 forma- 

 tion of eastern North America, which in its mineralogical and litho- 

 logical characters is similar to that of the western coast, and to those of 

 Russia and Australia. These auriferous rocks in Canada belong for the 

 greater part to the Quebec group, of Lower Silurian age ; but the quartz 

 veins containing gold, mentioned above, are found cutting strata which 

 are supposed to belong to the upper Silurian period. The auriferous 

 drift covers a wide area on the south side of the St. Lawrence, including 



