68 THE CANADtAM NATURALIST. [Vol. vi. 



nut coal and slack. The platform extends over eight railway 

 tracks, four for each slope ; its floor is level with the top of the 

 bank, for banking out, and in shipping bank-coal a railway track 

 is run along the foot of the bank, and from this level the bank 

 cars are raised to the main platform in a cage lifted by a small 

 donkey engine, which is also arranged to drive a circular saw for 

 the car shop of the colliery. 



The drawing engines are horizontal connected engines of about 

 50 nominal English horse-power ; they are of Scotch manufac- 

 ture, and are fitted with an extremely ingenious arrangement of 

 friction gearing, by means of which the two slopes may be worked 

 independently, by one engine, a matter of great convenience. 



Railway. 



The railway of this company extends from the Drummond 

 colliery to their shipping wharf at Granton on the Middle River, 

 near Abercrombie Point, the position of which will be seen on 

 a map. The main line of single track railway is laid with 56. 

 pound rails, with the new steel scabbard joint, which has proved 

 so successful on the Pictou and Truro branch of the Nova Scotia 

 railway. This railway was built in 1868 by Mr. Joseph B. 

 Moore, contractor, in the most complete manner, the track being 

 well ballasted with broken sandstone and a coarse conglomerate 

 from the cuttings near Waters's Brook, the culverts of cut stone, 

 and the bridge of trestlework with cut stone foundations. 



The rolling stock of this railway consists of three locomotives, 

 miscellaneous platform and construction cars, and sixty new coal 

 waggons carrying from six to seven tons of round coal each, twenty 

 of which were built at the Drummond colliery car shop. In con- 

 nection with the railway are provided at the colliery, car shops, 

 locomotive-sheds and weigh-houses. The length of the main line 

 of railway from the colliery to the wharf is about seven and one 

 quarter miles, which, with sidings, turn outs and standing tracks 

 at the colliery, will probably raise the total length of single track 

 to about ten miles. 



The shipping wharf of the Intercolonial Coal Company is a fine 

 structure of wood upon stone and crib work piers, extending in a 

 curve into the channel of the Middle Biver to about 22 feet of 

 water. The arrangement at the platform of the wharf is such 

 that there is a slight incline of one track downward from the 

 shore to the end of the wharf, and thence a further down grade 



