The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 79, May, 1864 by Various

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But let us hasten, in the very outset, to warn the individual
gold-hunter that he, at least, will get no crumb of comfort from these
pages. That the precious metal is there,--to use Dr. Johnson's
expression, "the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of
avarice,"--no one, we think, after reading what we have now to offer,
will be inclined to deny. But it is to be sought successfully, as we
shall show, only by the expenditure of capital, and under the direction
of science and the most experienced skill. The solitary adventurer may
tickle the stern ribs of Acadia with his paltry hoe and pick in
vain,--she will laugh for him and such as he with no sign of a golden
harvest. Failure and vexation, disappointment, loss, and ruin, will be
again, as they have already been, his only reward. With this full
disclaimer, therefore, at the commencement of our remarks, we trust that
we shall, at least, have no sin of enticement laid at our door. If any
one chooses to go there and try it on his own individual responsibility,
and in the face of this energetic protest and solemn warning, it must
surely be no further affair of ours.

* * * * *

The authorities, official, statistical, and scientific, from which our
knowledge of the Gold-Fields of Nova Scotia is mainly derived, are as
follows:--

1. Report of a Personal Inspection of the Gold-Fields of Nova Scotia, in
the Consecutive Order in which they were visited. Made by Lord Mulgrave
to His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, and dated at Government House,
Halifax, N.S., 21st June, 1862.

2. Report of the Chief Gold-Commissioner for the Province of Nova Scotia
for the Year 1862. Made to the Honorable the Provincial Secretary, and
dated at Halifax, January 23, 1863.

3. Report of the Provincial Geologist, Mr. Campbell. Made to the
Honorable Joseph Howe, Provincial Secretary, at Halifax, N.S., 25th
February, 1863. Accompanied by a Section across the Gold-bearing Rocks
of the Atlantic Coast of Nova Scotia.

4. Report on the Gold-Districts of the Province of Nova Scotia. Made to
the President and Directors of the Oldham Gold-Mining Company, December
28, 1863, by George I. Chace, Professor of Chemistry in Brown
University, Providence, R.I. _Manuscript_.

5. Introductory Remarks on the Gold-Region of Nova Scotia. Prefixed to a
Report made to the President and Directors of the Atlantic Mining
Company, December 31, 1863. By Benjamin Silliman, Jr., Professor of
General and Applied Chemistry in Yale College, New Haven, Ct.
_Manuscript_.

6. Report on the Montague Gold-Field, near Halifax, N.S., by the Same,
and on the Gold-Fields of the Waverley District, by the Same.
_Manuscript_.

7. Quarterly Report of the Chief Gold-Commissioner of the Province of
Nova Scotia. Made to the Provincial Secretary at Halifax, October 1,
1863.

8. The Royal Gazette, issued by the Chief Gold-Commissioner, Halifax,
January 20, 1863. Published by Authority.

* * * * *

In confirmation of these documents, we shall only need to add the
"testimony of the rocks" themselves, as shown in more than sixty
specimens of the gold-bearing quartz of these remarkable mines. Some of
these were brought to Boston by Professors Chace and Silliman, on their
return a few weeks since from exploring the rich leads of the
Provinces,--but by far the larger number were forwarded by some of the
resident superintendents of the mines, by the Cunard steamer Africa,
arriving in Boston, Sunday, January 10, 1864, to the care of Captain
Field, then residing at the Tremont House. We may add that the eight
finest of these specimens are now lying on the table before us, their
mottled sides thickly crusted with arsenical pyrites and streaked
through and through with veins and splashes of twenty-two-carat gold.
Incredulity, when raised to its highest pitch, might perhaps discredit
all written testimony, whether official or scientific; but we have as
yet seen no case so confirmed that the sight of these extraordinary
fragments did not _compel_ belief.

In drawing our narrative from the authorities above cited, we shall
prefer to follow as closely as possible the precise statements of the
documents themselves,--interspersed only with such remarks of our own as
may be necessary best to preserve an intelligible connection between the
different portions. The agreement between all the authorities is so
substantial, and in fact entire, that we shall experience none of the
usual difficulties in the reconciling of contradictions or the balancing
of conflicting theories or statements.

* * * * *

The gold-fields of Nova Scotia consist of some ten or twelve districts
of quite limited area in themselves, but lying scattered along almost
the whole southeastern coast of the Province. The whole of this coast,
from Cape Sable on the west to Cape Canso on the east, a distance of
about two hundred and fifty miles, is bordered by a fringe of hard,
slaty rocks,--slate and sandstone in irregular alternations,--sometimes
argillaceous, and occasionally granitic. These rocks, originally
deposited on the grandest scale of Nature, are always, when stratified,
found standing at a high angle,--sometimes almost vertical,--and with a
course, in the main, very nearly due east and west. They seldom rise to
any great elevation,--the promontory of Aspatogon, about five hundred
feet high, being the highest land on the Atlantic coast of the Province.
The general aspect of the shore is low, rocky, and desolate, strewn
often with huge boulders of granite or quartzite,--and where not bleak
and rocky, it is covered with thick forests of spruce and white birch.

The picture is not enticing,--but this is, nevertheless, the true _arida
nutrix_ of the splendid masses before us. The zone of metamorphic rocks
which lines this inhospitable coast varies in width from six or eight
miles at its eastern extremity to forty or fifty at its widest
points,--presenting in its northern boundary only a rude parallelism
with its southern margin,--and comprising, over about six thousand
square miles of surface, the general outline of what may, geologically
speaking, be called the Gold-Region of Nova Scotia.

It will be most interesting hereafter to mark the gradual changes
already beginning to take place in this rich, but limited district. It
is destined throughout, we may be sure, to very thorough and systematic
exploration. For, although it is true that gold is not to be found in
all parts of it, still it is not unreasonable to search for the precious
metal throughout this whole region, wherever the occurrence of true
quartz-veins--the almost sole _matrix_ of the gold--is shown by boulders
on the surface. Back from the coast-line, a large part of the district
named is now little better than an unexplored wilderness; and the fact
that the remarkable discoveries which have been made are in a majority
of cases almost on the sea-shore, and where the country is open and the
search easy, by no means diminishes the probabilities that continued
exploration in the less frequented parts of the district will be
rewarded with new discoveries as important as any which have yet been
made.

The earliest discovery of gold in the Province, yet made known to the
public, occurred during the summer of 1860, at a spot about twelve miles
north from the head of Tangier Harbor, on the northeast branch of the
Tangier River,--shown on McKinley's excellent map of Nova Scotia as
about fifty-eight miles east from Halifax. Subsequent discoveries at
Wine Harbor, Sherbrooke, Ovens, Oldham, Waverley, Hammond's Plains, and
at Lake Loon,--a small lake only five miles distant from Halifax,--have
fully determined the auriferous character of particular and defined
localities throughout the district already described, and abundantly
justify the early opinion of Lord Mulgrave, that "there is now little or
no doubt that this Colony will soon rank as one of the gold-producing
countries of the world."

As a specimen of one of the most interesting mineral veins of this
region, it may answer to select the Montague lode at Lake Loon for a
specific description. The course of this vein is E. 10 deg. N., that being
the _strike_ of the rocks by the compass in that particular district. It
has been traced by surface-digging a long distance,--not less, probably,
than half a mile. At one point on this line there is a _shift_ or
_fault_ in the rocks which has heaved the most productive portion of the
vein about thirty-five feet to the north; but for the rest of the
distance, so far as yet open, the whole lead remains true and
undisturbed.

Its dip, with the rocks around it, is almost vertical,--say from 85 deg. to
80 deg. south. The vein is contained between walls of slate on both sides,
and is a double or composite vein, being formed, 1st, of the main
_leader_; 2d, of a smaller vein on the other side, with a thin slate
partition-wall between the two; and, 3d, of a strongly mineralized slate
_foot-wall_, which is in itself really a most valuable portion of the
ore-channel.

The quartz which composes these interposed sheets, thus
separated, yet combined, is crystallized throughout, and highly
mineralized,--belonging, in fact, to the first class of quartz lodes
recognized in all the general descriptions of the veins of this region.
The associated minerals are, here, _cuprite_ or yellow copper, green
_malachite_ or carbonate of copper, _mispickel_ or arsenical pyrites,
_zinc blende, sesquioxyde of iron_, rich in gold, and also frequent
"sights" or visible masses of gold itself. The gold is also often
visible to the naked eye in all the associated minerals, and
particularly in the mispickel and blende.

The main quartz vein of this interesting lead varies from three to ten
inches in thickness at different points on the surface-level, but is
reported as increasing to twenty inches thick at the bottom of the
shaft, already carried down to a depth of forty feet. This very
considerable variation in thickness will be found to be owing to the
folds or plications of the vein, to which we shall hereafter make more
particular allusion.

The minerals associated with the quartz in this vein, especially the
cuprite and mispickel, are found most abundantly upon the foot-wall
side, or underside of the quartz itself. The smaller accompanying vein
before alluded to appears to be but a repetition of the larger one in
all its essential characteristics, and is believed by the scientific
examiners to be fully as well charged with gold. That this is likely to
come up to a very remarkable standard of productiveness, perhaps more so
than any known vein in the world, is to be inferred from the official
statement in the "Royal Gazette" of Wednesday, January 20, 1864,
published by authority, at the Chief Gold-Commissioner's office in
Halifax, in which the average yield of the Montague vein for the month
of October, 1863, is given as 3 oz. 3 dwt. 4 gr., for November as 3 oz.
10 dwt. 13 gr., and for December as 5 oz. 9 dwt. 8 gr., to the ton of
quartz crushed during those months respectively. Nor is the quartz of
this vein the only trustworthy source of yield. The underlying slate is
filled with bunches of mispickel, not distributed in a sheet, or in any
particular order, so far as yet observed, but developed throughout the
slate, and varying in size from that of small nuts to many pounds in
weight, masses of over fifty pounds having been frequently taken out.
This peculiar mineral has always proved highly auriferous in this
locality, and a careful search will rarely fail to detect "sights" of
the precious metal imbedded in its folds, or lying hidden between its
crystalline plates.

Nor is the surrounding mass of slate in which this vein is inclosed
without abundant evidences of a highly auriferous character. Scales of
gold are everywhere to be seen between its laminae, and, when removed and
subjected to the processes of "dressing," there can be little doubt of
its also yielding a very handsome return. In fact, the entire mass of
material which is known to be auriferous is not less than twelve to
fifteen inches at the surface, and will doubtless be found, as all
experience and analogy in the district have hitherto shown to be the
case, to increase very considerably with the increased depth to which
the shafts will soon be carried. No difficulties whatever are
apprehended here in going to a very considerable depth, as the slate is
not hard, and easily permits the miner in his progress to bear in upon
it without drilling upon the closer and more tenacious quartz.

The open cut, made by the original owners of the Montague property, and
by which the veins have been in some degree exposed, absurd and culpable
as it is as a mode of mining, has yet served a good purpose in showing
in a very distinct manner the structure of these veins,--a structure
which is found to be on the whole very general in the Province. The
quartz is not found, as might naturally be supposed from its position
among sedimentary rocks, lying in anything like a plain, even sheet of
equal thickness. On the contrary, it is seen to be marked by _folds_ or
plications, occurring at tolerably regular intervals, and crossing the
vein at an angle of 40 deg. or 45 deg. to the west. Similar folds may be
produced in a sheet which is hung on a line and then drawn at one of the
lower corners. The cross-section of the vein is thus made to resemble
somewhat the appearance of a chain of long links, the rolls or swells
alternating with plain spaces through its whole extent. Perhaps a better
comparison is that of ripples or gentle waves, as seen following each
other on the ebbtide in a still time, on the beach.

The distribution of the gold in the mass of the quartz appears to be
highly influenced by this peculiar wavy or folded structure. All the
miners are agreed in the statement that the gold abounds most at the
swells, or highest points of the waves of rock, and that the scarcely
less valuable mispickel appears to follow the same law. The spaces
between are not found to be so rich as these points of undulation; and
this structure must explain the signal contrast in thickness and
productiveness which is everywhere seen in sinking a shaft in this
district. As the cutting passes through one of these original swells,
the thickness of the vein at once increases, and again diminishes with
equal certainty as the work proceeds,--below this point destined again
to go through with similar alternations in its mass.

"There can be no fear, however," says Mr. Silliman, (Report, p. 10,)
"that there will be any failure in depth" (_i.e._, at an increased depth
of excavation) "on these veins, either in gold product or in strength.
The formation of the country is on too grand a scale, geologically, to
admit of a doubt on this point, so vital to mining success." Mr.
Campbell, whose masterly survey and analysis of the whole gold-region
forms, with the colored section accompanying it, the basis for a general
and thorough understanding of the whole subject, adds (Report, p. 5)
that "the yield per ton of such quartz when crushed cannot fail to prove
highly satisfactory." And Mr. Chace, in the Preface to his Report on the
Oldham District, (p. 6,) remarks, that, "if, as there are reasons for
believing, the gold-bearing quartz of Nova Scotia is of sedimentary
origin, in that case I see no reason why depth should cause any decline
in the richness of the ore. As yet, none of the shafts have been carried
down sufficiently far to test this question practically,"--he must, we
think, mean to its fullest extent, since he adds immediately after,
that, "as far as they have gone, the ore is very generally believed to
have improved with increase of depth."

Such, then, is a brief and imperfect description of the general
character of one of the representative veins or "leads" of the
gold-fields of Nova Scotia. Of the extent and number of similar deposits
it is scarcely possible at present to give any definite idea. The line
along which Mr. Campbell's section is made out extends from the
sea-shore at the south-east entrance of Halifax Harbor to the Renfrew
Gold-Field, a distance a little over thirty miles to the northeast,
intersecting in that distance no less than six great anticlinal folds.
The points at which the east and west anticlinal lines are intersected
by north and south lines of upheaval form the localities in which the
quartzite group of gold-bearing rocks are brought to the surface, and it
is here that their outcroppings form the surface of the country. The
official "Gazette" for January, 1864, enumerates nine of these districts
as already under a course of active exploration, namely, Stormont, Wine
Harbor, Sherbrooke, Tangier, Montague, Waverley, Oldham, Renfrew, and
Ovens. When we add, in the words of Mr. Silliman's second conclusion to
his Report on the Atlantic Gold-Field at Tangier, "that the gold-bearing
veins already explored on this estate alone are in number not less than
thirty, and that there is every reason to expect more discoveries of
importance, as the results of future explorations, already foreshadowed
by facts which have been stated," enough, we think, will have been
deduced, on the highest kind of scientific testimony, to bear out our
opening statement, that there exist in Nova Scotia veins of auriferous
quartz practically inexhaustible, by any known methods of mining, at
least for the next two hundred years.

One very remarkable characteristic of all the gold hitherto produced in
Nova Scotia is its exceeding purity, it being on the average twenty-two
carats fine, as shown by repeated assay. In this respect it possesses an
advantage of about twenty-five per cent. of superior fineness, and
consequently of value, over most of the yield of California, much of
which latter reaches a standard of only sixteen or seventeen carats'
fineness, and is therefore inferior by five or six carats in twenty-four
to the standard of the gold of Nova Scotia. The gold from all the
districts named is sold commonly in Halifax in bars or ingots, at about
$20 the ounce. Professor Silliman states the value of some of this gold,
assayed under his direction at the Sheffield Laboratory in New Haven,
Connecticut, at $19.97 per ounce, while the standard of another lot,
from the Atlantic Mine in the Tangier District, is fixed by him as high
as $20.25 per ounce. The Official Report of the Provincial
Gold-Commissioner for the year 1862 assumes the sum of $19.50,
Nova-Scotia currency, as the basis upon which his calculations of
gold-value of the yield of all the mines is made up. A quantity of gold
from the "Boston and Nova-Scotia" mines in the Waverley District, just
coined into eagles at the United-States Mint, and the results of which
process are officially returned to the President of that Company,
required a considerable amount of alloy to the ore as received from the
mines, in order to bring it down to the standard fineness of the
United-States gold-currency. All the Nova-Scotia gold is uncommonly
bright and beautiful to the eye, and it has often been remarked by
jewellers and other experts to whom it has been shown, that it more
nearly resembles the appearance of the gold of the old Venetian
ducats--coined mostly, it is supposed, from the sands of Guinea--than
any other bullion for many years brought into the gold-market.

In regard to the most important point of the whole subject, namely, the
average yield per ton of quartz crushed at the various mills, we are
fortunately enabled to give the official returns of the Deputy
Gold-Commissioners for the several districts, as made to the Chief
Commissioner at Halifax. A few words of explanation as to the definite
and statistical character of these returns may be of value here, in
order to prevent or to correct much misconception and want of knowledge
with regard to their absolute reliability.

In the first place, then, every miner, or the agent or chief
superintendent of each mine, is required by law to make a quarterly
return of the amount of days' labor expended at his mine, the number of
tons of quartz raised and crushed, and the quantity of gold obtained
from the whole,--neglecting to do which, he forfeits his entire claim,
and the Gold-Commissioner is then empowered to grant it to another
purchaser.

These returns are therefore made with the utmost regularity and with the
greatest care. But as the royalty of three per cent. to the Government
is exacted on the amount of this return, whatever it may be, it is
obvious that there exists no motive on the part of the miner to
exaggerate the amount in making his statement. We may be as sure that
his exhibit of the gold admitted to have been extracted by him does not,
at any rate, _exceed_ the amount obtained, as that the invoices of
importations entered at the Custom-House in Boston do not overstate the
value of the goods to which they refer. The practice is generally
suspected, at least, to tend in quite the opposite direction.

As the next step for ascertaining the yield of the mines, there comes in
a form of scrutiny which it would be still more difficult to evade. All
owners of quartz-mills are also required to render official returns
under oath, and in a form minutely prescribed by the Provincial law, of
all quartz crushed by them during the month, stating particularly from
what mine it was raised, for whose account it has been crushed, and what
was the exact quantity in ounces, pennyweights, and grains. And this is
designed also as a check on the miner, as the two statements, if
correct, will be found, of course, to balance each other.

The Chief Gold-Commissioner resides in Halifax, and has his deputy in
each gold-district, whose duty it is, as a sworn officer of the
Government, to see that the provisions of the law are carried out; and
the returns, as collected, are duly made by him each month, accompanied
by a general report on the industrial condition of the district
represented. It is from these returns, thus collected, that the
Gold-Commissioner-in-Chief prepares a quarterly exhibit, which he issues
on a broad sheet in a so-called "Royal Gazette." The last of these
documents issued was published by authority at Halifax, Wednesday,
January 20th, 1864, and a copy thereof, ornamented at the head with the
familiar lion and unicorn, is now lying with several of its predecessors
on the table before us. If skeptics desire any better authority than
this for the average yield of these mines, they must seek it elsewhere
for themselves. By the majority of persons capable of judging of the
value and weight of testimony, we presume it will be regarded as amply
sufficient.

After this explanation of the official character of these returns, a
transcript of the figures given in the last exhibit as the average yield
of gold per ton of quartz crushed will be all we think necessary in
answer to the inquiry we have proposed. We give them just as they stand
in the returns for December, 1863, only premising that the relative
yield of the several mines is found to vary very considerably from month
to month, being at one time higher, and at other times again somewhat
lower, and this from natural causes which have already been explained,
while the total amounts, when taken together, exhibit a steady increase
in the general yield of the whole. The figures stand as follows:--

DECEMBER, 1863.

_District._ _Yield of Gold_
_per Ton of Quartz._

Stormont (Isaac's Harbor) 2 oz. 10 dwt. 0 gr.
Wine Harbor 10 " 6 "
Sherbrooke 1 " 7 " 0 "
Tangier 14 " 12 "
Montague 5 " 9 " 8 "
Waverley 9 " 11 "
Oldham 15 " 12 "
Renfrew 1 " 2 " 0 "
Ovens[P] 18 " 9 "

The difference in yield between the districts is here very considerable,
as it happens,--yet in the month of October the average yield at Oldham
was 1 oz. 16 dwt, 20 gr., and at Renfrew 2 oz.; while for November it
was at Stormont 3 oz. 2 dwt. 12 gr., at Tangier 1 oz. 10 dwt, at
Waverley I oz. 3 dwt. 12 gr., and at Oldham 1 oz. 8 dwt. The _maximum_
yield per ton was 50 oz. at Wine Harbor, 12 oz. at Sherbrooke, 11 oz. 12
dwt. at Oldham, and 5 oz. 15 dwt. at Stormont, for the same period.

"The average yield," says Professor Chace, "per ton of quartz, of the
gold-fields of Nova Scotia will, it is believed, compare favorably with
that of either Australia or California, while some of the maximum yields
_indicate ores of unsurpassed richness_."

In regard to the best and most effectual methods of dressing and
amalgamating these rich ores, it seems to be conceded that the modes
hitherto in use in Nova Scotia have been very defective. Much larger
returns of gold are to be expected from the introduction of the new
processes, which scientific research is every day bringing to a greater
degree of efficiency in Colorado and California. The promoters of the
Nova-Scotia mining-enterprises, thanks to the skill and pains of their
scientific advisers, are fully awake to the importance of this vital
point. Pyrites--the mineral mixture so universally found with the gold
of this region--is well known to escape, or rather to resist, the
attraction of the mercury used in the amalgamating process, and it has
hitherto been allowed to pass away with the "tailings", or refuse from
the mills. When we state that it has been repeatedly shown to be from
ten to twelve per cent. of the components of the ore, and that by test
of the United-States Assay-Office its average yield is one hundred and
twenty-eight dollars to the ton,--and by the careful experiments of
Professor Silliman, at the Sheffield Laboratory in New Haven, it has
yielded even as high as two hundred and seventy-six dollars and
forty-nine cents to the ton,--the oversight and bad economy of its
waste will be sufficiently apparent. It may safely be estimated,
therefore, that the process of Dr. Keith, or some other equally simple
and efficacious method of extracting this hitherto wasted portion of the
precious metal from the accompanying sulphurets, will produce an amount
quite equal, at least, to the previous minimum yield. The effect of such
an increase in the returns will readily be appreciated by others besides
the merely scientific reader.

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