3-011-611 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Nova Scotian Goldfields: horizontal formation of auriferous quartz at Laidlaw's Farm, [Canada], 1862. Engraving of a photograph by Captain W. D. Tompson, of the 17th Regiment. 'One of the most remarkable deposits of auriferous quartz hitherto found is undoubtedly that at Laidlaw's Farm, in Nova Scotia. The principal workings are here situated near the summit of a hill composed of hard metaphoric shales, where openings have been made to the depth of some four or five feet upon a nearly horizontal bed of corrugated quartz of from eight to ten inches in thickness. This auriferous deposit is entirely different from any hitherto discovered, and, when laid open, presents the appearance of trees or logs of wood laid together side by side...From this circumstance the miners have applied the name of "barrel quartz" to the formation, which in many cases presents an appearance not unlike a series of small casks laid together side by side and end on end. The rock covering this remarkable horizontal vein is exceedingly hard, but beneath it for some little distance it is softer and somewhat more fissile. The quartz is itself foliated parallel to the lines of curvature, and exhibits a tendency to break in accordance with these striae'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.