286 Notes on the Coal Field of Pictou. 



sons stated in the publications above mentioned, I regard the great 

 conglomerate of New Glasgow above referred to, not as a recur- 

 rence of the Lower Carboniferous conglomerate, but as a bed of the 

 date of the coal formation, a contemporaneous shingle beach, which 

 shut off the Albion Mines coal area, and occasioned its excep- 

 tional character. In connection with these facts and views, Mr. 

 Poole's observations bear on the following points ; (1). The 

 character of the coal measures below the deep seam, previously 

 little known. (2). The sudden bending of the outcrops of the coal 

 seams to the southward, west of the Albion Mines, so that they 

 assume northerly dips for some distance, though they appear to 

 return to a N, E. dip further to the westward. (3). The occur- 

 rence of a narrow and abrupt synclinal immediately to the N. 

 E. of the Albion Mines, succeeded by an anticlinal, near the 

 axis of which in this locality is the outcrop of the great con- 

 glomerate. (4.) The results of explorations made in the mea- 

 sures north of the conglomerate, confirming apparently the dif- 

 ference of these in character, from the great coal measures south 

 of the conglomerate. (5.) The frequent occurrence, as at the 

 Joggins, of scales of fishes, bivalve shells, Cypris and Spirorhis 

 in connection with the beds of " Oil Shale," and coal. I have added 

 a notice of these fossils to Mr. Poole's paper, j. w. d.] 



The operations of the Eraser Oil Coal Company were carried 

 on during the past year in a seam of coal and bituminous shale 

 situated upon the Coal Brook, and underlying the seams of bi- 

 tuminous coal worked by the General Mining Association. 



The respective out crops of the deep seam and the Eraser oil 

 coal being 528 yards apart on the surface, and the general dip 

 N. 42° E., at an angle of 18 degrees, or 1 to 3, the oil coal 

 will underlie the deep seam 528 feet in perpendicular section. 



Tt is situated about 60 feet below the tabulated section given in 

 Haliburton's History of Nova Scotia, which distance is chiefly 

 occupied by strong bands of sandstone, whose actual thickness is not 

 yet proved, thin soft shales with bands of ironstone, Stigmaria 

 with Sigillaria and a few detached fern leaves (N^euroj^teris), 

 in such soft shale that I have not been able to preserve 

 any good specimens. Immediately above the oil coal are fourteen 

 inches of bituminous coal, but only the lower four inches are of good 

 quality, the upper part being of a soft friable nature, producing 

 a great deal of ash. 



The oil coal has a smooth regular parting at top, next to the 



