But now comes the question, are these geological indications of any importance in an economic point of view? Are these Newfoundland rocks likely to contain any mineral deposits? Here it is that the practical importance of science appears. Once a verdict as to the age of these formations is obtained, the geologist can determine, with a wonderful approach to accuracy, as to the probability of their yielding minerals, and after a regular survey has been obtained, he can point out the regions in which searches can be prosecuted with the greatest probability of success. On the discovery of mineral deposits in any district, he can ascertain the direction of the leading lodes and crossveins, and their relative antiquities; and arrive at a pretty accurate estimate of their richness and value, and thus afford invaluable assistance to the miner in overcoming obstructions occasioned by faults, dykes or slips. Now the verdict of science regarding these Newfoundland rocks is, that belonging largely to the Cambrian formation, they may be expected to be found rich in metals, as it is in such formations that the richest metalliferous veins occur. The mining industry of the world is chiefly situated in similar regions. Of such districts Dr. Page says “of vast antiquity and having undergone great changes through pressure, heat and chemical agency, they are generally rich in metalliferous veins, and it is from rocks of this age that a large proportion of the ores of iron, copper, tin, silver, and other valuable metals are obtained. And it is also owing to this antiquity, to their slaty and schistose structure, and to the long ages during which they have been subjected to meteoric and aqueous waste, that Laurentian and Cambrian rocks confer on the regions in which they occur their wild, rugged and picturesque scenery." These slaty, weather-worn, barren rocks may then contain many a rich lode and vein of precious metals which in due time will be made to yield their treasures; their subterranean wealth compensating, and perhaps far more than compensating for their want of agricultural fertility. At present there are abundant indications that Newfoundland will one day become one of the world's great mining regions. Little is known of it beyond the shores around which a fishing population of 130,000 have clustered, living almost entirely by the produce of its splendid fisheries, and heedless, as yet, of the far more valuable treasures that are beneath the surface of the soil. Within the last few years, however, important discoveries have been made, and attention is at length drawn to these matters. It will astonish most of the readers of the QUARTERLY to hear that one of the finest copper mines in the world is now being worked at Tilt Cove, on the north-eastern coast of Newfoundland. Last year 8,000 tons of ore were taken from it, the average value being £8 per ton-a yield of £64,000 worth of ore in one year. The fortunate proprietors are Messrs. C. F. Bennet and Smith McKay. Another mining claim in the same district, supposed to be equally valuable, is about to be opened. Mr. Murray pronounces the whole surrounding region, wherever the serpentine rock appears, to be metalliferous, and predicts that the great mining field of the Island will be found to run from White Bay to St. George's Bay. In Placentia, a valuable lead mine has been found, and indications of silver at Lawn. Roofing slate of the best quality is abundant in several localities. The discovery of a bed of Kaolin, or china-clay, is also recently announced. While I write these lines (January 12th, 1869,) the local papers mention the discovery of a fine specimen of gold-bearing quartz, found on our eastern shore, and analyzed, with satisfactory results, in Halifax. Professor Bell, of Kingston, Canada, when on a visit here last summer, predicted the discovery of gold in Newfoundland, from the character of the formations which, in certain places, he informed me, resemble the auriferous quartz region of Nova Scotia. There are few whose opinion on such a subject is entitled to more weight. Нарpily for herself, Newfoundland is at length convinced that her interest lies in joining the Dominion of Canada and in all probability, the union will be consummated in a few months. Then her great natural resources will be turned to account. The railroad projected by Mr. Sanford Fleming will cross the island from St. John's to St. George's Bay, linking us with the Intercolonial line, and making St. John's the great port of communication between the Old World and the New, being within five days steaming of the Irish shores. The risk of crossing the Atlantic will thus be immensely diminished, and the bulk of the passengers, and fine goods' traffic will, in all probability, be attracted to this route, as well as all mail matter. The railroad will open up the Island for settlement. On the western side the formations are wholly different from those of the eastern and northern. There a carboniferous region is found, whose coal and marble beds are known to be extensive; while fine timber and a fertile soil present inviting attractions to the agriculturist. Specimens of marble equal to the finest Italian have been obtained in that region. The Dominion will find Newfoundland one of her finest provinces, requiring only capital, skill and energy to render it a prosperous and wealthy country. Taking into account her splendid position between the Old World and the New, her magnificent harbours-her inexhaustible fisheries-her rich minerals, her coal, and marble beds and heavily timbered fertile lands in the west, it is difficult to name any country possessed of such a combination of natural advantages. At present, her condition is one of depression and misery of the extremest type. An Island as large as Ireland is inhabited by 130,000 people, of whom a very large proportion are at this moment in the lowest depths of poverty-in fact bordering on starvation. Joined to a wealthier, more progressive community, whose interest will lie in developing her material resources and elevating her naturally fine, intelligent people in the scale of being, a brighter future opens before her. NOTE.-Mr. Murray has kindly shown me a geological section, which he has recently completed, of that part of the Island with extends from St. John's to Conception Bay, exhibiting the relation of the Silurian rocks with the Cambrian and Laurentian. It will appear in his next report. He also tells me that the Taconic system of Dr. Emmons, referred to in the foregoing article, is regarded by some eminent geologists as a member of the Silurian series. It must be borne in mind that the fossils referred to have yet to be examined by a professional Palæontologist, only photographs of them having yet been sent. I have, however, given the evidence which seems strongly to point to the conclusion that they are Cambrian forms iden tical with Old hamia, or at all events closely allied thereto. Mr. Billings reserves his final verdict till he has examined the fossils themselves. THE BRITISH PEOPLE TO THEIR NEW REPRESENTATIVES IN PARLIAMENT. By WM. MURRAY, Hamilton, Ontario. We send you forth to fight A firm united band To battle for the Right; For Justice in the land, A fearless earnest host By Gladstone nobly led, To rectify what's wrong, To elevate the poor, To foster honest labour On terms that will allure With neither fear nor favour To help to bring around Ere very many summers (How glorious is the sound!) A free unfettered commerce, To rigidly keep down All waste of public money Nor suffer idle clown To suck official honey To foster peace abroad Then may we hope to see Our people happy, free, Great Britain great indeed. "Tis true our land is great, The errors of the past Too clearly to be cheated. No more ambitious Pitts, Can steal away our wits And spend our hard earned millions. Nor-coming further down, Can we be more done brown We're tired and sick of cant- In the mighty strife impending Honour will then be yours- SKETCH OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. PERIOD 2ND.- FROM THE ELIZABETHAN TO THE AUGUSTAN AGE. Continuation of 2nd Period. BY PROFESSOR LYALL. BETWEEN Spenser and Milton we have a crowd of minor poets, all excellent in their way, and exhibiting fine genius, but greatly inferior to those princes of song-descriptive, lyrical, satirical, didactic, pastoral, religious. Regarding the narrative poetry Spalding says: "Of the extracts from the national history, there are not a few which were very celebrated. Daniel's series of poems from the Wars of the Roses, is soft and pleasing in details, but verbose and languid. Drayton's 'Barons' Wars,' and 'England's Heroical Epistles,' are much more interesting, and in many passages both touching and imaginative; but in neither of them is there shown any just conception of the poet's prerogative of idealizing the actual. The good taste of our own time has rescued from forgetfulness two interesting poems of this class: Chamberlayne's 'Pharonnida'; and the Thealma and Clearchus,' which Walton published as the work of an unknown poet named Chalkhill. Several others must be left quite unnoticed: and this series may be closed with the vigorous fragment of Gondibert,' by the dramatist, Sir William Davenant." 66 "But different from all these," the same author continues, were the religious poems composed by the two brothers Fletcher, cousins of the dramatic writer. The Purple Island' of the younger brother, Phineas, is the nearest thing we have to an imitation of Spenser; but it is hardly worthy of its fame. It is an undisguised and weari. some allegory, symbolizing all parts and functions both of man's body and of his mind; and it is redeemed only by the poetical spirit of some of the passages. Giles Fletcher, however, has given us one of the most beautiful religious poems in any language, animated in narrative, lively in fancy, and touching in feeling. Over-abundant it is, doubtless, in allegory; but the interest is wonderfully well sustained in spite of this. It is a narrative which reminds us of Milton, and with which Milton was familiar, of the redemption of man; and its four parts are joined together under the common title of Christ's History and Triumphs.'' Drayton's "Polyolbion" had a strange subject for a poem-a topographical and antiquarian description of England! It is the first instance of what Dr. Johnson calls "local poetry"; but local poetry on such an extended scale is certainly something unusual, and has an air of absurdity about it, which we cannot help being conscious of, even while we admire the descriptive beauty, and fine pastoral touches, and abounding historical associations of the lengthened poem. It is written in the Alexandrine measure, which in itself is rather cumbrous, and would make any poem heavy, sustained through so many lines as the "Polyolbion." Warner's "Albion's England" is a poem something similar in plan and idea, but historic rather than descriptive, in the ballad measure, with the fine ring of some of Macaulay's ancient lays. Campbell calls it " an enormous ballad on the history of England"; and it has certainly much of the stirring interest which the events of history themselves possess. It is this very circumstance which gives much of our ballad poetry its charm and power. Dr. Donne was a poet and a divine of the time of James 1st of England; but certainly greater as a divine than as a poet. He is ranked among the metaphysical poets, but which of the poets of that period was not metaphysical? It was the vice of Shakspeare himself-a tendency to unexpected and far-fetched analogies, mere conceits, and a subtlety of thought, that often yields a fine and mellow fruit, but as often is of a wild and crabbed growth. Donne and Cowley, and George Herbert, and Crashaw, and Quarles, undoubtedly indulge this tendency to a faulty excess. There are certainly beauties in George Herbert's 'Temple,' but its fantastic and far-fetched conceits have greatly the preponderance. The fine spirit of piety that like an aroma or essence pervades it, and the beautiful character of the man himself, would excuse a thousand faults: still the poetry is for the most part strained, and the thoughts are by no means simple and natural enough. Suckling and Wither and Herrick are among the most exquisite of the minor poets of that age. Their grace and beauty, and felicity of thought and expression, are wonderful. Their ingenuity and play of fancy sparkle in every verse; while they have all that peculiar lyrical charm so characteristic of the period. The snatches of song scattered throughout the dramas of Shakspeare and Ben Jonson are perfect gems in their way. Crashaw and Quarles were fine religious poets; but the latter especially abounds in conceits, that are certainly more |