[GILPIN] COAL MINING IN PICTOU COUNTY 179 



posai of the government are not complete. The lowur division of the 

 seam was not worked at all in the Store, Bye, and Foord pits, and only 

 partly worked in the Dalhousie pit. It would probably l)e found to be 

 an over estimate, assuming that the upper portion of the seam was only 

 worked in the Dalhousie pit, to say that one-half of the upper portion of 

 the seam was worked. 



Assuming the acreage of the pits at 450 acres, and the two divisions 

 of the seams to be eack twelve feet thick, on the figures given in Acadian 

 Geology, there would be in the seam within their limits 16.200,000 tons of 

 coal, or allowing for barriers and un worked blocks of coal in all 18,000,000 

 tons. 



Taking one-half for the lower division of the seam, and adding one- 

 half of the upper or worked portion there would be still in these work- 

 ings 13,500,000 tons of coal. In any estimate of the future of this seam 

 of coal account would have to be taken of the enormous but as yet 

 undeveloped field lying to the north of the Foord pit workings. 



In this brief review of the history of coal mining in the Pictou main 

 seam we have noticed sviccessive fires, explosions, crushes, inundations, 

 and all the woes of the coal miner until it has become abandoned. The 

 successful recovery of this vast body of coal and its application to the 

 industrial pursuits of the country is a legacy left by the accumulating 

 disasters of half a century for the ingenuity of mining engineers. Aban- 

 doned pits, lurking fires, crushed pillars, impounded bodies of water, 

 imperfect plans, and outbreaks of spontaneous combustion, all unite to 

 appall the miner, and invite condemnation of man's waste of the gifts of 

 nature. 



