I n those parts of Nova Scotia lying eastward of the Shubenacadie River, and northward of Mines Basin and Channel, about half of the surface is occupied by carboniferous beds, whose arrangement has been noticed in various papers communicated to this Society. The remainder, with the exception of a few small patches of new red sandstone and unaltered Silurian strata, consists of metamorphic rocks, for the most part older than the carboniferous system. These metamorphic rocks may, by evidence derived from mineral characters, geographical distribution, and associated fossiliferous beds, be divided into two great groups, which, so far as I am aware, have not hitherto been accurately distinguished by writers on the geology of Nova Scotia. In the present paper I propose to notice the composition, arrangement, and distinctive characters of these groups; and to describe, somewhat in detail, the metalliferous veins which have been discovered in one of them. I. One of these metamorphic groups is, in the part of the province now under consideration, limited to the Atlantic coast and its vicinity. The prevailing stratified rocks in this group are, compact and flaggy grey quartzite (often weathering white), mica slate, and clay slate; the latter usually of dark colours, and occasionally passing into flinty slate and quartzite. These rocks usually occur in beds of great thickness. The hypogene rocks associated with them are white and flesh-coloured granite, which has penetrated the metamorphic rocks in large irregular bands and masses. The white granite, which is the most