but judge.

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 Sillim