bringing the miners within convenient working-distance of the receding
roof. In the case of "understoping," however, in which the blasts are
made from the floor of the drift, it will be perceived that all the rock
which is moved, of whatever kind, must equally be brought to the
surface, which entails a much greater labor and expense in the hoisting;
and gravity, moreover, instead of cooperating with, counteracts, it will
easily be understood, the effective force of the powder.

Such is a necessarily brief and condensed account of the novel and
interesting branch of industry which has thus been opened almost at our
very doors. The enterprise is as yet merely in its infancy, and will
doubtless for some time be regarded with incredulity and even distrust.
But if there be any weight to be attached to the clearest, most explicit
scientific and practical testimony, we must henceforth learn to look
upon Nova Scotia with an increased interest, and, perhaps a somewhat
heightened respect. The spies that came out of Canaan were not, at any
rate, more completely unanimous in their reports of the richness of the
land than the eminent persons who have been sent to examine the
auriferous lodes of our Acadian neighbors. If gold does not really exist
there, and in very remunerative quantities, it will be hard for us
henceforth to believe in the calculations of even a spring-tide, a
comet, or an eclipse.

"Up to the present time," (June, 1862,) says Lord Mulgrave, "there has
been no great influx of persons from abroad; and the gradual development
of the richness of the gold-fields is chiefly due to the inhabitants of
the country. Some few have arrived from the United States, and from the
neighboring Provinces; but they are chiefly persons destitute of
capital, and without any practical knowledge of mining-operations. This,
I fear, is likely to produce some discouragement, as many of them will