Jan. 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



ON THE GOLD MINES OE CANADA, ETC. 253 



the hill country belonging to the Notre Dame range, and extending 

 thence south and east to the boundary of the province. These wide 

 limits are assigned, inasmuch as although gold has not been everywhere 

 found in this region, the same mineralogical characters are met with 

 throughout. In its continuation southward in Plymouth, and elsewhere 

 in Vermont, considerable quantities of gold have been obtained from 

 the diluvial deposits. In Canada, gold has been found on the St. Francis 

 Eiver, from the vicinity of Melbourne to Sherbrooke ; in the townships 

 of Westbury, Weedon, and Dudswell, and on Lake St. Francis. It has 

 also been found on the Etchemin and the Chaudiere, and nearly all its 

 tributaries, from the seigniory of St. Mary to the frontier of the State of 

 Maine, including the Bras, the Guillaume, the Riviere des Plantes, the 

 Famine, the Du Loup, and the Metgermet. Several attempts have been 

 made to work these alluvial deposits for gold in the seigniories of Vau- 

 dreuil, Aubert-Gallion, and Aubert de ITsle, but they have been suc- 

 cessively abandoned, and it is difficult to obtain authentic accounts of 

 the result of the various workings, although it is known that very con- 

 siderable quantities of gold were extracted. The country people still, 

 from time to time, attempt the washing of the gravel, generally with 

 the aid of a pan, and are occasionally rewarded by the discovery of a 

 nugget of considerable value. In the years 1851 and 1852, an experi- 

 ment of this kind on a considerable scale was tried by the Canada Gold 

 Mining Company in the last-named seigniory, on the Riviere du Loup, 

 near its conjunction with the Chaudiere. The system adopted for the 

 separation of gold from the gravel was similar to that used in Cornwall 

 in washing for alluvial tin, and the water for the purpose was obtained 

 from a small stream adjoining. Great difficulties were, however, met 

 with, from a deficient supply of water during the summer months. The 

 gravel from about three-eighths of an acre, with an average thickness of 

 two feet, was washed during the summer of 1851, and yielded 2,107 

 pennyweights of gold ; of which 160 were in the form of fine dust, 

 mingled with about a ton of black iron sand, the heavy residue of the 

 washings. There were several pieces of gold weighing over an ounce. 

 The value of this gold was 1,826 dols., and the whole expenditure con- 

 nected with the working 1,643 dols., leaving a profit of 182 dols. In 

 this account is, however, included 500 dols. lost by a flood, which swept 

 away an unfinished dam ; so that the real difference between the amount 

 of the wages and the value of the gold obtained should be stated at 682 

 dols. The average price of the labour emplo} r ed was sixty cents a day. 



" In 1852, about five-eighths of an acre of gravel were washed at this 

 place, and the total amount of gold obtained was 2,880 pennyweights, 

 valued at 2,496 dols. Of this, 307 pennyweights were in the form of 

 fine dust mixed with the iron sand. A portion was also found in nug- 

 gets or rounded masses of considerable size. Nine of these weighed 

 together 468 pennyweights, the largest being about 127, and the smallest 

 about 11 pennyweights. Small portions of native platinum, and of 



