150 Geological Society. 



of Pictou and Stewiack should be found to belong to the carbonife- 

 rous limestone of New Brunswick and of Great Britain, the author 

 is not aware that there are any beds in the province which are refer- 

 rible to that formation. The coal-field which skirts nearly the whole 

 of the northern coast of Nova Scotia, and which occupies the greater 

 part of the isthmus, is a small part of that extensive coal-field of 

 which the remainder is situated in the province of New Brunswick. 

 In Nova Scotia, the commencement of the coal-field towards the east 

 is near Pomket Harbour, between the 45th and 46th parallels of north 

 latitude and the 61st and 62nd meridians of west longitude. Hence 

 it extends along the whole northern coast of the province of Nova 

 Scotia to Bay Verte, where it enters the province of New Brunswick. 

 The area of the coal-field in Nova Scotia is about 2500 square miles, 

 and that of the coal-field in New Brunswick about 7500 square 

 miles, making the total area of the coal-field in the two provinces 

 10,000 square miles, and in this computation is not included the 

 coal-field of Cape Breton. The above coal-field may therefore be 

 considered as one of the most extensive on the face of the globe, and 

 as of great value to Great Britain and her North American colonies. 

 The strata occupying this extensive area consist 



1. Of gray, red and chocolate-coloured sandstones and conglome- 

 rates ; 



2. Of red, blue and black shales ; 



3. Of shelly limestones ; 



4. Of clay ironstone ; 



5. Of coal, of which the bituminous variety occurs throughout 

 the district. 



All the strata abound in the remains of the plants that are usually 

 found in the coal-measures. 



The coal-measures usually lie in long parallel troughs or in cir- 

 cular basins, towards the bottoms of which troughs or basins the 

 strata dip in opposite directions. The prevailing strike of the strata 

 is from south-west to north-east, which is also that of the more an- 

 cient slate rocks of Nova Scotia. The dip of the coal-measures varies 

 from 5° to 45°. Throughout the whole of the coast-line, from 

 Pomket Harbour to Point Miscou, the coal-measures undergo scarcely 

 any fault or dislocation. 



From Pictou Harbour, in Northumberland Strait, a belt of coal- 

 measures, about six miles broad, runs in a westerly direction across 

 the isthmus, passing between the southern flank of the Cobequial 

 mountains and the southern coast of the isthmus, along the Basin of 

 Mines, and thence running further westward to Advocate Harbour. 

 The length of this belt is about 100 miles : the strata which compose 

 it rest along the northern margin of the great part of the belt, on 

 the fossiliferous slates of the Cobequial mountain ; it is along its 

 southern margin, that at Moose River and Advocate Harbour, the 

 coal strata rest unconformably on old red sandstone. At Moose 

 River the coal-measures contain a thin bed of marine limestone, 

 and like the old red sandstone which they rest upon, thin beds 

 of gypsum. The coal-measures lap round the eastern extremity, 



