THE METALS IN CANADA. 253 
lated by Mr. Murray (Report 1851-52), of a small quantity of copper 
pyrites occurring in a vein of calc-spar which is found penetrating the 
Laurentian limestone and Potsdam sandstone, in the township of Bas- 
tard, county of Leeds. The vein was tried by sinking a shaft to the 
depth of twenty feet on it, but the amount of ore found was not suf- 
ficient to justify the expectation of a favourable result. The trial seems 
to have been made in consequence of the previous discovery, on Gana- 
noque Lake near the same locality, of some loose masses of very fine 
and rich copper pyrites of considerable size, and containing upwards of 
thirty per cent, of copper. The source of these masses has not yet been 
discovered. 
In the same neighbourhood in the township of Escott, and still upon 
the borders ot the Laurentain rocks, there occurs a led of magnetic 
oxide of iron, holding a considerable quantity of copper pyrites so 
strongly resembling the detached masses found on Gananoque Lake as 
to induce the belief that they have originated in similar deposits .* The 
cupriferous portion of the bed varied from six to ten inches in thickness 
over a length of about twelve feet extending in the direction of the 
stratification. Sir William remarks : I understand that between eighteen 
and twenty tons of the copper ore were obtained, but after this bunch 
became exhausted I believe no excavation was made through the dead 
ground in search of a further quantity. On testing the iron pyrites, Mr. 
Hunt has detected in it traces of cobalt, and as cobalt and nickel very 
generally accompany one another, the latter may very reasonably be 
expected in this deposit. 
Copper in the Eastern Townships. — But the copper region of Eastern 
Canada, par excellence, will be found to be on the south side of the St. 
Lawrence in the Quebec group of rocks. So far as hitherto discovered, 
the deposits occur most abundantly and in greatest richness, as might be 
expected, in the highly altered and disturbed strata constituting the 
mountainous and picturesque region of the eastern townships. Through- 
out this region and extending as far as the extremity of Gaspe, the rocks 
are distributed in long narrow synclinal forms, with many sharp plica- 
tions or folds, and in some cases overturn clips. The ores, consisting of 
the pyritous and variegated sulphurets of copper, are found usually in 
the vicinity of certain bands of dolomite, serpentine, soapstone, and 
other magnesian rocks ; and the deposits, in every instance yet dis- 
covered, preserve a direction coinciding with the stratification. 
Upton. — In a trial excavation in the township of Upton, Drummond 
county, the ore, consisting of pure pyrites, in a matrix of calc-spar, oc-. 
curred in the form of reticulating veins of from a quarter of an inch to 
an inch in thickness, enclosed in a partially crystalline limestone, the 
veins constituting bunches, several of which could be traced in the 
strike of the limestone. Sir William Logan regards them as veins of 
* See Report of Progress for 1858, p. 52. 
