they planted showed green shoots within a week.

At the mouth of the Cap Rouge river there is a high point,
now called Redclyffe. On this Cartier constructed a second
fort, which commanded the fortification and the ships
below. A little spring supplied fresh water, and the
natural situation afforded a protection against attack
by water or by land. While the French laboured in building
the stockades and in hauling provisions and equipments
from the ships to the forts, they made other discoveries
that impressed them more than the forest wealth of this
new land. Close beside the upper fort they found in the
soil a good store of stones which they 'esteemed to be
diamonds.' At the foot of the slope along the St Lawrence
lay iron deposits, and the sand of the shore needed only,
Cartier said, to be put into the furnace to get the iron
from it. At the water's edge they found 'certain leaves
of fine gold as thick as a man's nail,' and in the slabs
of black slate-stone which ribbed the open glades of the
wood there were veins of mineral matter which shone like
gold and silver. Cartier's mineral discoveries have
unfortunately not resulted in anything. We know now that
his diamonds, still to be seen about Cap Rouge, are rock
crystals. The gold which he later on showed to Roberval,
and which was tested, proved genuine enough, but the
quantity of such deposits in the region has proved
insignificant. It is very likely that Cartier would make
the most of his mineral discoveries as the readiest means
of exciting his master's interest.