338 APPENDIX. No. XV. 



Excluding water, sulphur, and ash, its compositions are : — 



Carbon . . . . ' . . 82*97 



Hydrogen. . . . . .6*16 



Oxygen and nitrogen . . . . 10-87 



100.00 



Its ash contains 7*58 per cent, of potash, a quantity un- 

 usually large ; and Mr. Moss compares the chemical composi- 

 tion of the coal to the thick era of the carboniferous of 

 the Bay of Funcly, Nova Scotia, and to a lignite of Miocene 

 age in the Island of Sardinia, containing 82*26 of carbon. 1 



The specific gravity of the Grinnell Land coal is 1*3, 

 corresponding to those from Disco, though it differs in con- 

 taining so much larger an amount of carbon. 



From the large number of analyses made by Mr. A. 

 Marvine of the U. S. Survey of the Territories of the Lignites 

 of the Western States, 2 it appears they resemble the Grinnell 

 Land coal in their compact character, black colour and 

 shining lustre, resembling that of bituminous coals ; the ash 

 is low, seldom reaching 6 per cent., while the sulphur is 

 generally less than 2 per cent. Volatile products evolved 

 below a dull red heat usually vary from 25 to 37 per cent., 

 while fixed carbon lies between 45 and 60 per cent., indi- 

 cating qualities above those of ordinary European brown 

 coals or lignite, but containing;' less carbon than the true 

 bituminous coal of Grinnell Land. 



The extensive tracts of Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks 

 ranging from the Gulf of Mexico to Vancouver Island, and 

 occupying so large an area in the centre of North America, 

 have been shown to consist of an unbroken sequence, without 

 any physical break, but contain a succession of distinct floras, 

 the details and relative age of which have been so ably worked 



1 On the chemical composition of the coal discovered "by the Arctic 

 Expedition of 1875-6. — ' Scientific Proc. of the Royal Dublin Soc.,' 

 1877. 



2 ' Report of the U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey of the Territories/ 

 Washington, 1874. p. 112. 



