For this year’s summer collecting trip we decided to visit Canada. This was our first visit to the world’s second largest country and as we were going to be here for a number of weeks we wanted to see as many mineralogically interesting locations as possible. The timing of the visit was very important because two of the locations we wanted to visit are only open for collecting during a very narrow calendar window. Therefore mid July saw us on a flight from the UK to Montreal. On arrival at the airport we headed off to pick up our hired RV Motorhome. The vehicle was amazing by comfort standards including a shower, kitchen and satellite TV. The most surprising piece of kit was an instruction list of what to do and not do when in bear country. For example hang food from a tree at least 100m from the RV when camping offsite overnight and not to carry food around when walking into the woods. We studied this advice carefully not wanting to attract any uninvited attention from the local wildlife.

First on our schedule was Mont Saint Hilaire in Quebec. Located 40km East of Montreal, in Rouville County the site has become a mineralogical classic as one of the world’s most prolific sources of rare mineral species. To date 360 species have been identified from Mont Saint Hilaire, of which 50 are new to science with several undetermined minerals still being investigated by the International Mineralogical Association. Collecting is strictly controlled and restricted to a number of days per year. The field trips on Mont Saint Hilaire are organised by the Club de Mineralogie de Montreal. The dates in 2006 were May 27nd & 28th, July 1st, July 22nd, Sept 2, 2006. The dates for the 2007 season will be published on their website.

Our home from home	Poudette Quarry

We arrived very early on the 22nd July to find a long queue of pick up trucks and their owners waiting to get into the Poudrette quarry, the most productive site in recent years. We got out of our RV and struck up a lively conversation in a mixture of English and basic French, which is the leading language in this part of Canada. The gates opened at 8am and entry is only allowed until 9am. Admission is charged at CAD 10 per person. Collecting is then permitted until 4pm when all visitors have to leave. We were given a short list of rules, the most important of which prohibits working within 8m of any major rock wall. Breaking this rule results in immediate expulsion from the quarry.

Contrary to its appearance, Mont Saint Hilaire is not a volcano, although its shape is very misleading. Instead the mountain originated in a series of three intrusions of magma into pre-exisitng Ordovician sedimentary rocks. The intrusions were probably triggered by the beginning of the formation of the Atlantic Ocean. Each intrusion has a distinct composition and age. Interestingly, MSH is in an almost straight line of similar mountainous intrusions suggesting that tectonic forces appear to have created a hot spot under this part of North America. The hot spot itself was relatively stationary deep in the earth, but as North America was slowly pushed west by the spreading of the mid-Atlantic the upwellings of magma formed the line of Monteregian Hills. Today the easternmost, hence the youngest, of the igneous mountains formed along this line is Mont Megantic, near the Quebec border with Maine.

Waiting for the gates to open	Superb Orthoclase - Mont Saint Hilaire

At Mont Saint Hilaire the intrusions penetrated layers of shale, limestone and siltstone that were melted and transformed by contact with the hot magma. This created a thin shell of fairly hard metamorphic rock around the igneous core of the mountain. Outside was unaltered sedimentary rock, which is relatively soft compared to the igneous and metamorphic rocks. Over millions of years, these softer rocks eroded but some of the metamorphic rocks, especially around the sides of the mountian, were preserved. These now form a narrow band around the mountain, conspicuous as low cliffs.

The mixing of chemicals from the melting sedimentary rocks and the magma, plus the slow cooling of the rocks far below the surface, contributed to the extraordinary mineral richness of the site. Also, the particulalry alkaline nature of the magma led to the occurrence of many minerals rarely found elsewhere anywhere in the world. Trying to find some of these was one of the main reasons for our visit today.

The Poudrette Quarry, where most of the best mineral finds have occurred lies at the northern edge of the Gault Nature Reserve and penetrates deep into the igneous core of the mountain, The quarry is absolutely enormous. It is actually three former quarries which have grown into each other into a venture now owned by the Poudrette family. In one part a depression has been filled with water to form a deep blue-green lake. We headed off for a distant corner and laid out our tools. Prospecting is done amongst the thousands of rough boulders which lie scattered on the quarry floor. Many of these contain vugs and pockets lined with crystalline specimens. Along the quarry walls are large lens-like crystalline xenoliths surrounded by metamorphic rims. However the quarry walls are out of bounds so we had to satisfy ourselves with fragments laying underfoot.

Nevertheless after only a short while we had collected at least ten different species and possibly many others which are difficult to identify in the field. Other collectors were very helpful in helping us to establish the identity of some of our specimens. Amongst the haul we had Aegirine, Zircon, Gibbsite, Dawsonite, Microcline, Muscovite, Epidote, Orthoclase, Tremolite and Eudialite. The rest would have to wait until we got back to the UK.

Muscovite - Mont Saint Hilaire	Tremolite - Mont Saint Hilaire

Our next Canadian destination was Bancroft in neighbouring Ontario. We drove there in a very leisurely manner sightseeing in Quebec City and Ottawa on the way. Both are very impressive cities but the former has much more character and charm. Our target was the Bancroft 43rd Annual Rockhound Gemboree held between 3rd and 6th of August. There are fewer collecting restrictions at Bancroft so collectors can visit on set dates throughout the year but the summer event draws thousands of collectors, rock hounds and geologists. More than 70 dealers from North America arrive with mineral specimens, jewellery, lapidary supplies and crafts made from rocks and gemstones. The Gemboree continues to grow in size and in the number of attraction it offers to collectors.The most popular events include mineral identification, a swapping area, gold panning, and mineral talks.

Bancroft is regarded as the "Mineral Capital of Canada" because of the variety and quality of mineral species that occur here. To date nearly 1,600 mineral species have been identified in a region known as the Canadian Shield, stretching 400 kilometers wide by 2,000 kilometers long from Lake Huron to Labrador. The Bancroft area is located in the Bancroft terrane, consisting of deformed carbonate metasedimentary rocks, a minor amount of volcanic rock, and a distinctive suite of nepheline syenites, syenites, skarn pyroxenites, calcite veins and uranium-bearing nepheline rocks. A list of minerals that have been mined industrially in the Bancroft area include corundum, feldspar, uranium, graphite, iron, marble, granite, lead, gold, molybdenite, apatite, beryl, fluorite, talc and sodalite. Mining in most cases was carried out on a limited scale, mostly between 1880 and 1935, and was largely confined to open cuts and quarries.

Bancroft Main Street	Bancroft Mineral Museum

Many of these can be visited today but the best place to start is the Mineral Museum in the Old Station which displays excellent examples of local minerals and provides information and directions to 30 popular collecting sites in the area. The best book is the Bancroft and District Mineral Collecting Guidebook, which is on sale at the Mineral Capital Gift Shop. Other sites have been compiled on the Bancroft Guide CD sold at many Bancroft stores. However you need a PC to browse these. As a starting list we recommend the Beryl Pit near Harwood Lake, for beryl, biotite, amazonite, cleavelandite, zircon, lyndochite and peristerite; Goulding Keene Quarry for pyrite, nepheline, calcite, sodalite, and scapolite; and York River Skarn which has produced many rare minerals ludwigite, vesuvianite, clinopyroxine, wollastonite, tochilinite, brugnatellite, monticellite, perovskite and pyrrhotite.

Our first stop was at the mineral swapping area. We had brought a small number of English Weardale fluorites and these were quickly swapped for some local Bancroft specimens including a pink zircon, deep blue sodalite and a number of rare ludwigites, monticellites and scapolites. Very pleased with our trades we headed off towards the hall hosting the dealer tables. Here we found a couple of friends from the USA including a well known miner of Herkimer Diamonds from Herkimer County and a dealer of excellent Garnets from Roxbury. This was our first opportunity to meet in person although we had been dealing with each other via the web and email for some years. Both offered us excellent specimens and beer, both of which were gratefully received. Afterwards we talked to many local dealers and obtained a rather good collection of Bancroft minerals, albeit mostly micro specimens. Nevertheless most of these were excellent crystalline samples when viewed under a microscope. The highlight of the day was somehow getting an invitation to the dealers Barbecue that evening. This was a great event hosted by the municipality and included in the entertainment was a traditional country and western band.

The following morning we joined one of the organised collecting trips to a disused quarry which promised a number of rare igneous species. Our transport was an old pickup truck which threatened to throw everyone out of the back as it lurched through the woods on an old rutted track. Eventually we arrived and the group leader explained the local geology and the likely specimens to be found here. He also pointed out a number of possible locations in the quarry including a number of pockets high up on the walls. Fortunately nearby was a corrugated iron shed which revealed a stash of ladders and collecting tools including picks and hammers. The ladders were quickly erected and prospecting began in earnest. One of our first finds was a pink orthoclase crystal more than 15cm in size. Suddenly a loud commotion at the far side of the quarry alerted us to a small rockfall after some overzealous digging there. We rushed over to help clear the rubble and amongst the rocks we made discoveries of Cordierite, Forsterite, Sodalite and Epidote. The latter as green gemmy crystals on white quartz. By now it was late afternoon and it was time to return to Bancroft, stay the night, and in the morning head off for the final destination of the summer. Overall, the two days spent in Bancroft were very enjoyable for both making new friends at the Gemboree and collecting many interesting specimens in the field.

Epidote - Bancroft	Sodalite - Bancroft

Our last Canadian visit was the Bay of Fundy. This part of our journey was not constrained by any specific dates and was therefore the most leisurely part of our trip to Canada. In order to get to the bay we had to more or less back track, reversing our journey through Quebec into Nova Scotia. The bay is approximately 200km long and lies between the mainland and New Brunswick. The two provinces come close together at the head of the bay gradually funnelling the bay into a narrow inlet. The constriction channels water up and down the bay creating some of the world’s highest tides, up to 15m high. The ebb and flow of water has created a unique ecosystem occupied by a huge diversity of sea life including humpbacked whales. These follow vast schools of herring as the fish migrate up and down the bay during each tide. The hunt is followed by thousands of sea birds which fight for scraps that the whales leave behind. Having hired a small boat the day after our arrival, these were some of the most enduring memories we took away.

Across the Bay of Fundy	Whale watching

Geologically, the bay was created two hundred million years ago, during the Triassic period, as one of a series of tension gashes that opened up in the crust along what is now the eastern margin of the North American continent. These deep channels allowed molten rock to rise, intruding the pre-existing sedimentary rocks with dikes and sills. In some areas the lava poured out onto the surface creating extensive lava flows. These can be found intermittently all the way from the Bay of Fundy as far as North Carolina. Fissure lava flows are very unlike traditional volcanoes such as the pyramidal Vesuvius or Mount Teide. Their lava output is negligible compared to fissure eruptions. At the Bay of Fundy and elsewhere the vents released highly fluid lava in enormous quantities. Many of the flows were several meters thick and extended for thousands of square kilometres. The rapid surface cooling ensured that the resulting igneous rock consists mainly of dark coloured glass and a fine-grained mass of plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene crystals. A notable feature of these lavas is a large amount of water and other volatile gasses. Once free of the confining pressure these gasses expanded forming round or oval vesicles in the cooling rock. Water separating from the rock dissolved and carried a number of soluble ions which combined to form low temperature minerals including quartz and zeolites, the latter where there is a shortage of silica. These minerals often formed in the original vesicles left by the escaping gasses. These combinations lead to the vast deposits of the minerals we see today.

The Bay of Fundy, originally a flat basin above sea level, experienced as many as five separate lava flows, the first being half the total thickness. which measures over 200m. Today the basin, covering about 30,000 square kilometres, is largely submerged with only limited exposures along the north coast of the bay. These are Grand Manan Island, Isle Haute, Cape d’Or and Five Islands. Along the south coast the exposure is much more extensive and extends for 200km from Cape Split to Brier Island. Since their eruption, these flows have remained relatively undisturbed with only slight tilting to the northwest and minor faulting. There are numerous locations along the north and south coasts with substantial mineral emplacements. These include all the sites already mentioned. However since they were first described in 1829 the most famous and productive location is Wasson’s Bluff on the north shore half way between Economy Point and Cap d’Or. Here spectacular Chabazite specimens have been collected and now appear in many museums around the world. Although usually white, the mineral from Wasson’s Bluff ranges from orange to pink, a uniqueness that has given it a variety name of Acadialite. Our visit coincided with a field visit from a local mineral club and we were shown some of the best locations. We are very grateful for their hospitality.

Classic Chabazite - Bay of Fundy	Analcime - Bay of Fundy

Collecting in the bay is made possible by the action of the tides and frost on the cliffs lining the coast. Their combined action breaks down the rock, constantly providing fresh exposures of basalt containing crystals of zeolites, quartz and other silcate minerals. Hall's Harbour and Harbourville are places where it is easy to access the basalt cliffs at low tide but it is critical that the collector doesn’t get caught by the water. They come in fast and are up to almost 15m high!! The basalts at Harbourville are criss-crossed with veins of various silicates, mostly Stilbite, Heulandite, Analcime and Laumontite. The cliffs contain numerous caves often lined by good crystalline specimens. The basalt at Scotts Bay is very hard and siliceous. The exposure is noted for numerous geodes, many lined with quartz and amethyst. Other features include veins and vesicles filled by zeolites. However the rock is very hard and breaking the geodes and extracting the silicates form the cliffs is very difficult.

For another location of our visit we travelled to Cape Breton to collect Howlite crystals at Iona. The rock here is mostly Anhydrite and the collecting site is on the opposite of a rocky promontory which protrudes into the bay. To reach the collecting site it is necessary to wade around this obstacle. Fortunately it was a calm day because we were warned by the locals that on windy days the coast is pounded by large waves. Since the area is strewn with large boulders there is significant danger of being smashed by the waves against these rocks. Once we reached the opposite side we encountered jagged Anhydrite boulders scattered around the base of the cliff. The Howlite can be chiselled from the anhydrite and occurs as white masses closely resembling turquoise but lacking the clue colour.

On our last day we visited the Fundy Geological Museum on Two Islands Road and the Parrsboro Rock & Mineral Shop & Museum just a little past Main Street on the way to the causeway. In particular, the Rock & Mineral Shop & Museum has the world's smallest dinosaur footprints on display, along with a wonderful collection of large amethyst geode and local mineral specimens. The museum collection belongs to Eldon George and has been described in the National Geographic. Both the Geological and Parrsboro museums are highly recommended to see.

Unfortunately our visit to Canada had come to an end. It was a truly exceptional experience during which we saw and collected in three very different geology environments. All together we had almost 40kgs of specimens and made many new friends and future suppliers. We strongly recommend visiting Canada as it was one of our most enjoyable field trips. If you are interested and would like more information please do not hesitate to contact us.