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.