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. Newfoundland, it may be inferred to belong to the lower part of the Lower Silurian system. The map attached to that paper and here reproduced, shews the geographical position of the beds, which extend along the whole Atlantic coast, from Cape Canso to Cape Sable. (1) Secondary Trap. (2) New Red Sandstone (Permian or Triassic.) (3) Carboniferous. (In eastern part of Nova Scotia proper.) (4) Devonian. (5) Middle and Upper Silurian. (6) Metamorphosed Lower Silurian. (Auriferous region.) The numbers refer to the section and to the corresponding shades of the map. In my "Acadian Geology," (1855) a more full description is given of this "Atlantic Coast Metamorphic District," extending from p. 346 to 365, and including some remarks on the probabilities of the discovery of gold and other metals in this formation. From this description I may condense the following notice of the rocks occurring in the district, and their distribution. The prevailing stratified rocks are clay slate and quartz rock, the former of various degrees of coarseness, and usually of grey and black tints, and the latter in thick massive beds of a grey colour, locally named "whin." In some localities these are replaced by mica slate and gneiss, perhaps consisting of the same material in a farther state of metamorphism, and they are penetrated by veins and masses of intrusive granite, which from its relations elsewhere, would seem to be of Devonian age. In passing from S.W. to N.E., and nearly in the strike of the beds, the following distribution appears. In the county of Yarmouth, quartz rock and slate alternate; the former constituting rocky ridges, the latter occurring in the valleys, and occasionally exhibiting beds of chloritic and hornblendic slate. Quartz veins abound in the slates. Along the coast of Shelburne and Queen's counties, granite, gneiss, hard quartzite, and mica slate, prevail; but inland the clay slates occur and occupy a considerable breadth of country. In Lunenburgh and Halifax counties, with the exception of the granitic bands of Aspatogen, Cape Sambro, and Musquodoboit Harbour, the clay slate and quartzite prevail, threaded as usual with small quartz veins, which in some parts of Lunenburgh, and in the country between Halifax and Musquodoboit Harbour, are very numerous and have proved auriferous. Eastward of the granite mass of Musquodoboit and Ship Harbour, the slates and quartzite reappear, and are auriferous, the former, however, being often micaceous, and between Country Harbour and Cape Canseau, presenting many beautiful varieties of perfect mica slates, for specimens of which, I was indebted many years ago to Mr. Whiteman, civil engineer, who visited this coast in connection with the railroad surveys. In the peninsula of Cape Canseau, gneiss appears to prevail, but there are also thick beds of slate, abounding in crystals of chiastolite. The long range of outcrop above shortly sketched, and extending N.E. and S.W. along the coast, about 250 miles, and inland in some places from 20 to 30 miles, appears to belong to one geological system, and this probably the lower part of the Lower Silurian. It is thus on the geological horizon of the auriferous and cupriferous rocks of Lower Canada, as the age of these rocks has been recently settled by Sir W. E. Logan. These rocks in Canada were until lately referred to the Hudson River group; and on consulting my paper above quoted, and my "supplementary chapter," p. 53, it will be found that I was aware of the similarity in mineral character to these Canadian deposits, though I could not regard the Nova Scotia coast series as of so modern date as that assigned at that time, to what are now regarded as their Canadian equivalents. No geological survey of Nova Scotia having as yet been made,and the Atlantic coast series, owing to its absence of fossils, and of interesting minerals, being on the whole uninviting to amateurs, little detailed information exists as to the precise order of its de |