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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 f* &• REPORTS ON THE PROPERTY OF THE ent iolb pining Compg, tft It • SITUATED ON THE TROUT BROOK AND CHAUDIERE RIVER IN THE TOWNSHIP OF JERSEY, CANADA EAST. » I IP' w KENT GOLD MINING COMPANY. H> PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. No part of tho far-famed ChaudiCre gold-mining region of Canada has shown better indications of a large yield of gold than the townships of Jersey and Marlow, situated in the county of Beauce, and between the main stream of the Chaudi^re and its most important tributary, the River du Loup. The Kent Gold Mining Company, desirous of availing them- selves of the rich prospects now opened up in this regionj have selected a block of land, very favorably situated in the centre of the district referred to, or near the line between Jersey and Marlow. This property which is held by the Company in fee simple, is situated on Trout Brook, one of the tributaries of the Chaudiere river, and comprises 434 acres in area, with a frontage of five miles on Trout Brook, and three-eighths of a mile upon the Chau- diere. It is confidently beUeved that this location is unsurpassed by any other in this auriferous region, and it is proposed to commence the work of prospecting, &c., immediately. The subjoined reports and abstracts will convey an idea of the geological and mineral character of the region in question, and of the encouragement held out to minmg adventurers. m EXTRACTS ITROM THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF SIR WiLLIATtf LOOAX, PROVINCIAL OEOLOGIST, ON THK CHAUDIERE GOLD MINES. In the Report of Progress preceding this, mention is made of a partial examination of the gold-bearing drift of the Chau- diSre. This examination was last season continued, and the facts resulting from it constitute the only additional topic to which I have to invite your Excellency's attention. The auri- ferous district was found to spread over an area probably com- prising between 3000 and 4000 square miles. It appears to oc- cupy nearly the whole of that part of the Province which lies on the south-east side of the prolongation of the Green Moun- tains into Canada, and extends to the boundary between the Colony and the United States. Two general lines of explora- tion were followed. One of them up the Chaudi^re and Riviere du Loup from the seigniory of St. Mary to the Province Line, and the other from Lake Etchemin to Sherbrooke on the St. Francis. The former, running transverse to the rock ranges, measured about forty-five miles, and the latter with them about ninety miles. The transverse line was more closely examined than the other, and traces of the precious metal were met with at moderate intervals throughout the whole distance. They were not confined to the channels of the main streams merely, but those of various tributaries furnished indications sometimes for a considerable distance up. The lowest point in the valley of the Chaudidre, at which the drift yielded traces of gold, was on a small 6 stream, falling in on the left side of the river, not far within the south-eastern houndary of the seigniory of St. Mary. They were found to occur on four tributaries, in the seignioiy of St. Joseph, for distances of one and two miles from their mouths. One of these joins the main stream, on the left bank, about a quarter of a mile below the parish church, and the other three are on the right. The lowest of them is about two miles below the church, the next about the same distance above it, and the fourth is the Riviere des Plantes, about half a mile farther up, and near the south-eastern boundary of the seigniory. In Vau- dreuil Beauce tliey were discovered on the Guillaumc, much farther up than previously stated, and on the Bras opposite to it ; on this and some of its tributaries the metal was traced to the centre of the township of Tring, a distance of about twelve miles. Three other streams which yield it in Vaudreuil Beauce, have heretofore been mentioned ; they are the Ruisseau Lessard, Ruisseau du Moulin, and the Touffe des Pins, on which it was first discovered. In Aubert de I'Isle it was found on the Famine, and traced to Harbottle's settlement, and beyond the seigniory into Watford, a distance altogether of about ten miles. Some particles were obtained on the Ruisseau d'Ardoiso, about a mile above the Famine, and it was followed about three miles up the brook commonly called Pozer's stream, in Aubert Gallion. On the Riviere du Loup, in addition to its occurrence in a multi- titude of spots, in fact almost continuously from its mouth across Jersey and Marlow, it was found in nearly all its tribu- tary brooks, such as the Ladyfair, the Grande Coude, the Metgermet for four miles up, the Traveller's Rest, the> Por- tage, Kempt's Stream, Oliver's Stream for four miles up, and another stream between it and the boundary of the Province. Above the Loup, on the Chaudi^re, it occurred at succes- sive intervals in twenty places in sixteen miles, as far as the south-western boundary of Dorset township. The localities of its observed presence on the other line of ex- ploration were on Lake Etchemin and along the Famine in Au- bert d'Isle, and Pozer's Stream in Aubert Gallion, towards Tring, and again on the St. Francis, m Dudswell, in Westbury, I \ f i4r i ¥ i and near the joint corners of Westhnry, Stoke, Eaton, and Ascott, as well as in this last township near Sherbrooke. It is not supposed that the limits of the auriferous district have been ascertained, but that it very probably extends much farther to the north-east, and attains the valley of the river St. John, while to the south-west it is known to reach Vermont, and to bo traceable at intervals tlirough the United States, even, it is said, as far as Mexico. In its breadth, however, it does not appear to cross the range of mountains with which it runs parallel, and no traces of it have been met with on their north- western flank. The deposit in which the gold occurs is part of an ancient drift, probably marine, and supposed to be of higher antifpiity than that which, from the extent to which it oc- cupies the valley of the St. Lawrence and some of its tributa- ries, Mr. Desor, who has recently bestowed much attention on the detrital deposits of North America, is disposed to give the name of Lawrencian. In this, alluded to in various Reports as. tertiary and post-tertiary, the remains of whales, seals, and two species of fish, the capeling and the lump-sucker, and many marine shells of those species still inhabiting the Gulf of St. Lawrence, are found. Those shells on the Mountain of Montreal attain a height of about 470 feet above the tide level in Lake St. Peter, which is the greatest altitude known to me ; none of the remains have yet been found in the Canadian gold drift, and as this appears in its lowest undisturbed parts to be at a height of about 600 fe^t above the sea, it is probable what is now iexposed of it, had emerged from the ocean before the Lawrencian drift was placed, while in lower levels it would be covered up by it. In the localities in which the gold occurs, the coarser mate- rials of the drift are made up in a large degree of the debris of rocks similar to the clay slates and interstratified grey sand- stones on which it rests, but these are accompanied by frag- ments and pebbles of fine conglomerate, talcose slate, and ser- pentine, which with magnetic, specular, chromic and titanife- rous iron (none of them absent when the gold is present) are de- rived from the mountain range, bounding it on the north-west; k § pohblea and fragments of white quartz arc abundant, which may ho dorivcfl from tho veins of the mineral prevailing in the mountain ran;;;o or from others on the south-east of it. With thcBO material there occaaionally occur in the valley of tho Chau- (lidre and its tributaries large boulders of limestone conglome- rate, similar to the beds of the St. (Jilos and St. Mary, and more rarely boulders of gneiss identical in character with known kinds of the rock on the north side of the St. Lawrence. Not only is the gold al)sent from the drift on tho north-west flank of the mountain range, but so also are the chromic iron and the ser- pentine, notwithstanding that the two have been traced in association 135 miles, constituting a marked band accom- panying the range from Potton to Cranbounie. On tho north- west flank, however, boulders of northern gneiss are frequent and a few of limestone have been met with even pretty high up on the hills, showing by their fossils their derivation from the Trenton limestone, the nearest exposures of which are on the north aide of the St. Lawrence. In fact, in respect to the drift of the whole country, it may be said, that on southern forma- tions are found resting the ruins of northern, but no northern rocks are met with overlaid, to any extent, by debris deriv- able exclusively from southern. The auriferous drift shows no exception to this, and there is little doiibt that causes con- nected with northern currents, when the rocks were beneath the surface of an ocean, have placed the whole. Ever since the surface, however, has risen from beneath this ocean, causes similar to those now in operation in the district haVe been worldng in a contrary course. The rivers of the district emptying into the St. Lawrence, flow north; in so far, there- fore, as their forces modify the distribution of the drift, the mate* jials of which it is composed are carried in that direction. This, no doubt, has some ' effect on the finer and lighter m£lte» rials, and occasionally, with the assistance of ice and great fresh- ets, on some of the coarser and heavier; but the streams wash- ing away the formqr in larger proportions than the latter, con- centrate these in the valleys and channels. The gold being the heaviest substance is moved the least. It may occasion- 9 ^1 «' ally bo purihod along tho bottom when tliis is smooth, hut it seeks every hole and orcvice in its course, and when it has once obtained shelter there, it remains protected. Where the edges of tho slates corao to tho surface, tho plates ho.vo all boon moved by supeificial forces, and they, tliercfore, lie .more or less loosely on one aaotJier, and the fine particles of gold gradu- ally work themselves down between them, reaching sometimes so deep as tliree feet. Although it is probable the whole of tho drift on the south- east of the mountain range, both that in high and that in low places, may be auriferous, it appears certain that the metal will be most concentrated in the valleys and the channels of streams, and tho larger the stream, the more fre<[uently it has broken down its banks, the ofteiier and more extensively it has changed its course, tho more important the auriferous deposit is Ukely to be. From the combination of tho materials associated with the gold in the drift, there appears a strong probabiUty that tlie metal is derived, through the agency of some southward-niovmg causes, from quai'tz veins situated in the mountain range ; and even if traces were found north of this range in the channels of the main streams, such as the Chaudi^re and the St. Francis, the circumstance would not militate against the supposition, as traces in such positions may be expected fi'om the fluviatile remodification of the drift. The object of this examination has not been so much to as- certain quantity as distribution, but an effective experiment being now in operation on the Riviere da Loup, under a letter of license from the Government, one condition of the lease being that a correct return shall be made of the quantity obtained, I am in hopes by the end of the present season to have a few such facts as will afford some criterion to determine whether there is rea- sonable ground for supposing the deposit in that vicinity can be jerked, advantageously. 10 GOLD IN LOWER CANADA, (From the Commercial MvcrtUer.) We have been favored by a friend, a practical gold-miner, who spent some years in the placers of California engaged in gold-min- ing, with an account of his exploration of the Chaudi^re gold dis- trict, during the present summer. Our informant spent two months m prospecting the country from the junction of the Du Loup and Chaudidre rivers, where the Montreal Company is now working, to the Maine and New Brunswick boundary hnes. The season has been one of the worst ever known for prospecting, the water in the rivers and brooks being at flood height, and the ground saturated with moisture by the constant ram. He was therefore prevented from examining the beds of the streams, and from sinking trial al' *^o the necessary distance to obtain an accurate knowledge q: \ture and extent of the distribution of the precious metah Bu. .. «n these unfavorable circumstances his general exploration was highly successful. Pie found gold in the banks of every stream examined, in the ditches by the road-side, in the gravel be'ds ad- joining water-courses, on the tops of the hills far removed from water, and in other locahties which cannot have been submerged for many ages. The general character of the gold, of which we have many specimens now before us, is of great purity and exceedmg coarseness ; some of it is much water-worn, and other specimens appear to have been only recently dislodged from the quartz matrix. The country generally exhibits broad exposures of slate, traversed by numerous quartz veins, and resembles in every respect the gold region of California, with the exception of the absence of volcanic evidences. We have now [to announce the discovery of a large quartz vein in the Chaudiere district carrying an usually large amount of gold in prills and nuggets, many of them weighing several ounces ; and the discovery of other leads showing similar indica- tion of the precious metal, and proving conclusively that these quartz veins may be worked in Canada, as in Australia and Cali- fornia, with a prospect of very large returns. One mass of quartz taken from the large vein was thickly set with nuggets of gold from an ounce up to six ounces in weight, carrying the gold not hi , ■"f f 11 regular strings, but in isolated lumps throughout its substance ; a quantity of quartz estimated at five hundred weight having yielded to the discoverer Heven hundred dollars worth of gold by the simple process of breaking out the large pieces with a hammer; and still containing a large amount of finer gold only to be obtained by crushing. Our informant states that he saw nothing equal to this mass in the most productive quartz leads of California, and if the remainder of the vein from which it was taken is at all like it, its value is in- calculable. It was discovered last year by some habitants of the district, who kept its locality a secret. It was from this vein that the large nuggets sold in Quebec last November were taken. We have before us some specimens, showing its exceeding richness. The gold in the different streams varies much in character ; in some it is exceedingly fine, as fine indeed as that of Fraser's River ; in others, and some of the smallest, it is coarser than that found in CaUfornia, the fine gold being apparently the result of the decern- ' position of auriferous pyrites, and the product of quartz veins. Hitherto the streams alone have been worked, and the operations on them were conducted with so little skill, that our informant is surprised that any gold was obtamed; as it was, the whole of the fine gold was washed away. Yet, in one instance, 15,000 divts. were taken from little more than half-an-acre of a bar; in f.nother, nine pounds weight were got from a single hole, and more recently 12,000 were obtained in two deys, after damming a considerable stream, nearly all being coarse gold. Our informant is of opinion, and as a thoroughly practical man his opinion is entitled to the highest consideration, that the diy diggings in the Chaudi^re district will be found more productive than the streams. He says that on the whole the California streams have not repaid the expense of working them. He believes that the streams contain no more gold than has been displaced by the water from the rocks traversing them ; and that the whole country in their vicinity would be found as rich, and in many cases much richer, if mined in the same manner as similar lands are in Califor- nia and Australia, by sinking shafts through the gravel down to the rock or clay beds beiveath. Hfe says that in no part of Califor^ nia could he obtain the saitto quantity of gold by fche same means as he obtained upon the Chaudi^Fe and its tributary streams ; that the surface prospects, in spite of/ the unfavorable season, were superior to any he had ever found before ; and that with ordinary skill, by simply panning on the river banks, large wages can be made with cefrtainty. CHAUDIERE RIVER GOLD FIELDS. (To the Editor of the Montreal Witnesg.) Sm,— After a residence of many years in Australia, and having seen the Gold-workings on all the principal fields, and been in the continuous habit of testing aUuvial gold, I find myself in Canada, and have had submitted to me the produce of about 6 tons of soil,, tjtken from the neighborhood of Chaudi^re river— the amount is " marli/2oz. of alTmst pure gold ! and, with the exception of Ballarat gold, as fine as any now found in either Australia or New Zealand. Having no interest in thii^ country or in those fields, I submit this disinterested opinion :— that were any Australian miners to see such a result from so small a working, thousands of thoroughly ex- perienced men would soon develop these hidden riches. I have no hemtation hi saying that a country that can show such samples has untold riches yet to be produced. The gold of British Colum- bia is not to be compared with the Chaudidre samples I have seen— containing nuggets as large as small beans. Montreal, Sept. 1^6, 186B. An Australian. AHb m^ammmtimimmvwmrmm^mvmf' '^t relli;Hr Btnutdcuy. C'timfHUtys Property Colared-Jie^/ . SCAX£. SIX (MILES TO ONE INCH. jfJUUes. \ t T Jf E P « V/''^^^ /v. IL GAUUOH DE tlSUE ■^^> :: hi hf s^putBrBck O N N t ^7 f o R HiETGERWlE'^'^^ / / / y. / if' « A 'i< T / / M y