Dr.
Gesner mentions finding two small nodules of opal, of a waxy color, at
Partridge Island, N. S. Semi-opal has been found at Partridge Island in
fine specimens, also at Grand Manan, N. B., and other localities in
that vicinity.
Cacholong
has been found associated with chalcedony in Nova Scotia on the Bay of
Fundy. The hornstone found at Partridge Island admits of a fine polish
and is of some use as an ornamental stone.
Jade
(nephrite), in the form of archaeological implements, has been found
from the Straits of Fuca northward along the entire coast of British
Columbia and the northern end of Alaska.1 At the latter
place it is closely allied with other minerals, such as the new form of
pectolite, and is found, with other relics of various kinds, about
shell heaps and old village sites, in graves, or still preserved,
although seldom used, by the natives. It is also found as far inland as
the second mountain system of the Cordillera belts, represented by the
Gold, Cariboo, and other ranges, principally among remains from Indian
graves, and along the lower portions of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers,
within the territory of the Selish people. It is less common in the
interior of the province, which Dr. Dawson accounts for in part by the
facts that adzes or adze-like tools had not been so much employed by
the Indians of the interior and by those of the coast, who are
pre-eminent as dextrous workers in wood and noted for the size and
superior construction of their wooden houses and canoes; and that,
previous to the introduction of iron tools among the Eskimos and
Indians, the use of jade must have been much more frequent, so much so
as to preclude the theory of its having been obtained in trade from
remote sources. The Indians of the west coast, although they value the
jade, have for it no superstitious or sentimental feeling. The finding
of two partly worked small boulders of jade on the lower part of the
Frazer River, at Lytton and Yale, B.C., respectively, and the discovery
of unfinished objects in old Indian graves near Lytton, make it certain
that the manufacture of adzes had been actually carried on there. A
series of specimens, numbering sixty-one in all, have been deposited in
1
On the Occurrence of Jade in British Columbia, by Dr. George M. Dawson.
Canadian Record of Science, Vol. 2, No. 6. April, 1887.
