Post by 150FromFundy on Aug 6, 2012 8:13:09 GMT -5
Laura and I did one of those vacations planned around rock collecting this summer. We spent a week collecting around the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec.
One of our more interesting surprises was a morning spent at the Mount Lyall Agate Mine. Mount Lyall is a 350 million year old volcano in the Chic Choc Mountains. It contains the most easterly thunder eggs in North America found to date (but I’m still looking).
Mount Lyall also claims to be the biggest producer/exporter of thunder eggs and the mine is not expected to run out for 300 to 500 years. Huh! Hard to believe considering I had not even heard of Mount Lyall until recently. Perhaps the lack of publicity is because Quebec is a French province and the site has not been studied by English researchers.
Let’s take a little walk and you can judge for yourselves. For about $34 you can collect as long as you want and fill the bucket provided. The operators provide you with a little orientation and show you what to look for. Normally, there are 10,000 tourists through the mine on a typical summer. We were early in the morning and early in the season, so we shred the site with only one other couple.
Photo 1 – Entree/Entrance – French isn’t so hard after all!
Photo 2 – To the upper mine. It doesn’t look very steep, but I’m glad they put that bucket on a dolly.
Photo 3 – View of the lower mine from the upper mine. The agate mine has only been in operation for about 20 years. Originally, there was only one terrace to collect from, but it has grown over the years.
Photo 4 – It’s easy to lose your sense of scale in the mine. Each one of those terraces is actually a dozer/tandem track.
Photo 5 - Every once in a while, you have to stop collecting to appreciate the beauty. This is a little different than my typical beach and rocky shoreline collecting.
Photo 6 – The Chic Choc Mountains contain 5 of the 8 highest peaks in Quebec and are revered by hikers and mountain climbers. You can see trails to the summit of Mount Serpentine. Mount Serpentine? That gives me another idea.
Photo 7 – Upper mine viewed from lower mine. You can just barely see the family of three that we had to share the volcano with.
Photo 8 – Wash down area. You should only wash thunder eggs with mountain water.
Photo 9 – I am new at thunder eggs, so tended to pick up chipped ones that had a little window to what was inside. It only took about 30 minutes to fill our bucked, but we spent two hours trying to decide what ones had to be left behind.
Photo 10 – Impressive gas saw. Cuts really fast. For a price, they will cut the bigguns in site. I stuck to littluns to cut on my tile saw.
I’ll post the cut thunder eggs shortly. They are not as impressive as the “western” thunder eggs, but they do deserve an honourable mention. It turns out this mine is only a day’s drive away. Chances are, I’ll be back.
Darryl.
One of our more interesting surprises was a morning spent at the Mount Lyall Agate Mine. Mount Lyall is a 350 million year old volcano in the Chic Choc Mountains. It contains the most easterly thunder eggs in North America found to date (but I’m still looking).
Mount Lyall also claims to be the biggest producer/exporter of thunder eggs and the mine is not expected to run out for 300 to 500 years. Huh! Hard to believe considering I had not even heard of Mount Lyall until recently. Perhaps the lack of publicity is because Quebec is a French province and the site has not been studied by English researchers.
Let’s take a little walk and you can judge for yourselves. For about $34 you can collect as long as you want and fill the bucket provided. The operators provide you with a little orientation and show you what to look for. Normally, there are 10,000 tourists through the mine on a typical summer. We were early in the morning and early in the season, so we shred the site with only one other couple.
Photo 1 – Entree/Entrance – French isn’t so hard after all!
Photo 2 – To the upper mine. It doesn’t look very steep, but I’m glad they put that bucket on a dolly.
Photo 3 – View of the lower mine from the upper mine. The agate mine has only been in operation for about 20 years. Originally, there was only one terrace to collect from, but it has grown over the years.
Photo 4 – It’s easy to lose your sense of scale in the mine. Each one of those terraces is actually a dozer/tandem track.
Photo 5 - Every once in a while, you have to stop collecting to appreciate the beauty. This is a little different than my typical beach and rocky shoreline collecting.
Photo 6 – The Chic Choc Mountains contain 5 of the 8 highest peaks in Quebec and are revered by hikers and mountain climbers. You can see trails to the summit of Mount Serpentine. Mount Serpentine? That gives me another idea.
Photo 7 – Upper mine viewed from lower mine. You can just barely see the family of three that we had to share the volcano with.
Photo 8 – Wash down area. You should only wash thunder eggs with mountain water.
Photo 9 – I am new at thunder eggs, so tended to pick up chipped ones that had a little window to what was inside. It only took about 30 minutes to fill our bucked, but we spent two hours trying to decide what ones had to be left behind.
Photo 10 – Impressive gas saw. Cuts really fast. For a price, they will cut the bigguns in site. I stuck to littluns to cut on my tile saw.
I’ll post the cut thunder eggs shortly. They are not as impressive as the “western” thunder eggs, but they do deserve an honourable mention. It turns out this mine is only a day’s drive away. Chances are, I’ll be back.
Darryl.
