British Association, Professor Philips, who by his labours threw much new light on the palæontology of Devonshire, who, in the Memoirs of the Survey, has contributed an admirable Monograph on the Silurian and other rocks around the Malvern hills, and who, by his lectures and writings, is now constantly advancing geological science in the oldest of our British Universities.

"There is yet one subject connected with the Geological Survey to which I must also call your attention-viz., the mineral statistics of the United Kingdom, as compiled with great care and ability by Mr. Robert Hunt, the Keeper of the Mining Records, and published annually in the Memoirs of our establishment.

"These returns made a deep impression on the statists of foreign countries who were assembled last year in London at the International Congress. The Government and members of the Legislature are now regularly furnished with reliable information as to our mineral produce, which, until very recently, was not obtainable. By the labours of Mr. Robert Hunt, in sedulously collecting data from all quarters, we now become aware of the fact that we are consuming and exporting about 80,000,000 of tons of coal annually (a prodigious recent increase, and daily augmenting). Of iron ore we raise and smelt upwards of 8,000,000 of tons, producing 3,826,000 tons of pig iron. Of copper ore we raise from our own mines 236,696 tons, which yield 15,968 tons of metallic copper; and from our native metallic minerals we obtain of tin 6,695 tons; of lead, 63,525 tons; and of zinc, 4,357 tons. The total annual value of our minerals and coals is estimated at 26,993,5737., and that of the metals (the produce of the above minerals) and coal at 37,121,3187.

"When we turn from the consideration of the home survey to that of the geological surveys in the numerous colonies of Great Britain, I may well reflect with pleasure on the fact that nearly all the leaders of the latter have been connected with, or have gone out from, our home geological survey and the Government School of Mines.

"Such were the relations to us of Sir William Logan in Canada, of Professor Oldham in India, with several of his assistants; of Selwyn in Victoria, of my young friend Gould in Tasmania, as well as of Wall in Trinidad; while Barret, in Jamaica, is a worthy pupil of Professor Sedgwick. Passing over the many interesting results which have arisen out of the examination of these

distant lands, we cannot but be struck with the fact that, while Hindostan (with the exception of the higher Himalayan mountains), differs so materially in its structure and fossil contents from Europe, Australia (particularly Victoria) presents, in its palæozoic rocks at least, a close analogy to Britain. Thanks to the ability and zeal of Mr. Selwyn, a large portion of this great auriferous colony has been already surveyed and mapped out in the clearest manner. In doing this he has demonstrated that the productive quartzose veinstones, which are the chief matrix of gold, are mainly subordinate to the lower Silurian slaty rocks, charged with trilobites and graptolites, and penetrated by granite, syenite, and volcanic rocks, occupying vast regions. Mr. Selwyn, aided in the palæontology of his large subject by Professor M'Coy, has also shown how these original auriferous rocks have been worn down at successive periods, one of which abrasions is of pliocene age, another of post-pliocene, and a third the result of existing causes., All these distinctions, as well as the demarcation of the carboniferous, oolitic, and other rocks are clearly set forth. Looking with admiration at the execution of these geological maps, it was with exceeding pain I learnt that some members of the Legislature of Victoria had threatened to curtail their cost, if not to stop their production. As such ill-timed economy would occasion serious regret among all men of science, and would, I know, be also deeply lamented by the enlightened Governor, Sir Henry Barkly, and would at the same time be of lasting disservice to the material advancement of knowledge among the mining classes of the State, let us earnestly hope that the young House of Parliament at Melbourne may not be led to enact such a measure.

[Want of space compels us to omit the conclusion of this address, as well as a preceding portion relating to the Permian rocks.]

AL) FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST, 1861.

Sea, 118 feet.

WEATHER, CLOUDS, REMARKS, &c. &c.

[A cloudy sky is represented by 10, a cloudless one by 0.]

ARTICLE XXX.-On the recent discoveries of Gold in Nova Scotia. By J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.G.S., &c.

(Read before the Natural History Society.)

The discoveries of gold recently made in Nova Scotia, are of much interest both in a geological and commercial point of view; and should they exercise an influence on the destinies of that Province, comparable with that which similar discoveries have produced in California and Australia, they will not be without importance to Canada, and will probably contribute to attract attention to other mineral resources of the Lower Provinces heretofore neglected. In the present paper, I propose to record the leading geological facts connected with these discoveries, using materials collected in my former geological researches in Nova Scotia, and the facts communicated to me by friends who have visited the localities.

In a paper on the Silurian and Devonian rocks of Nova Scotia, published in Vol. V of the Canadian Naturalist, p. 132, et seq., I referred very shortly to a series of metamorphic rocks extending along the Atlantic coast of the Province. I stated that it has afforded no fossils; but from its apparent relation to the fossiliferous Silurian rocks further inland, and to the older slate series of CAN. NAT. VOL. VI. No. 6.