Magnificent Rocks

photograph: Armstrong Lime Quarry, c. 1895, Green Head Island, Saint John, New Brunswick. This photograph of the Armstrong Quarry shows cords of wood stacked on the wharf. To make quicklime the marble was burned in a kiln to drive off carbon dioxide. Large quantities of wood were required to manufacture quicklime.

drawing: Mine at Reversing Falls (Plumbago) 1856, 1935-1839

photograph: Old Post Office, Prince William Street, Saint John, New Brunswick, 2008. This building was constructed after the Great Fire of 1877. The building walls are constructed of sandstone from Westmorland County in eastern New Brunswick and a granite foundation from the Hampstead quarry. The mortar used to construct this building came from the Armstrong Lime Quarry at Green Head in north Saint John.

Trilobite: Paradoxides regina Matthew, Cambrian, Saint John, New Brunswick, Collector: W.D. Matthew and G.F. Matthew, c. 1886. Paradoxides regina was perhaps the largest trilobite known in the late 19th century. Will Matthew found this specimen in Saint John when he was about fourteen years old. Will’s father George described the fossil in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada and named the species in honour of Queen Victoria.

Chalcopyrite, Cambrian, Cobbler Sexton Mine, near Woodstock, New Brunswick. The sample shows chalcopyrite along quartz veins.

postcard: Hole in the Wall, Grand Manan, New Brunswick, c. 1932. Erosion of the rocks on Grand Manan has formed many unique features. One of the best known is the ‘Hole in the Wall’ located on the east side of the island in the Cambrian volcanic rocks of the Fish Head Gabbro. Geologic study on Grand Manan goes back to 1839 when New Brunswick’s first Provincial Geologist, Abraham Gesner, visited Grand Manan Island to conduct a geological survey.

Brunswick 6 Ore, Ordovician, Brunswick Mines, New Brunswick, Collector: Brunswick Mining and Smelting. Ore sample from the Brunswick No. 6 mine. The sample contains 2.7% lead, 6.2% zinc, 0.3% copper and 1.7 ounces of silver.

photograph: Running the Dawsonville Rapids, the Worst on the Restigouche River, New Brunswick, c. 1900. People have been travelling New Brunswick’s water highways for thousands of years. Canoeing the Restigouche River is a long tradition in northern New Brunswick. A familiar place to many who take part in this activity is the ‘Rafting Grounds’ near Dawsonville.

painting: Grand Falls, New Brunswick, c. 1890. One of the New Brunswick’s better-known scenic attractions exposes the underlying Ordovician geology. The gorge at Grand Falls cuts through the White Head Formation as the Saint John River drops 23 metres over one of the highest waterfalls in Atlantic Canada.

St. George red granite: ‘column end’, Late Silurian to Devonian, St. George, New Brunswick, Collector: unknown. Natural stone has been used for thousands of years to create buildings and monuments. In the late 1800s New Brunswick red and black ‘granite from St. George was one of the best-known decorative stones in North America.

Chalcopyrite, Silurian, Digdeguash, Charlotte County, New Brunswick. In the summer of 1863, Loring Bailey visited copper mines in Charlotte County.

Dr. Randall Miller Research Curator, Geology and Palaeontology New Brunswick Museum

Dr. Randall Miller Research Curator, Geology and Palaeontology New Brunswick Museum