272 RUYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



the interior and used to some extent on this railway, Tlie actual extent 

 and value of these coal-basins have never been definitely ascertained. It 

 is possible that these coal-bearing nocks may belong to the lower portion 

 of the J\Iiddle Carboniferous formation and underlie the portion which 

 in Xova Scotia carries the thick seams of the productive measures. This 

 can only be ascertained l)y a carefully conducted series of explorations 

 of the entire coal-basin. 



In the underlying Devonian rocks Avhich outcrop on the west coast 

 of this island at Port au Port and further north at Parsons pond, at 

 which places they rest upon Cambrian or Cambro-Silurian sediments, 

 indications of petroleum are found, and borings have been carried on at 

 both places for a number of years. So far, however, these attempts have 

 not been successful in finding the oil in paying cjuantitaes,, owing pro- 

 bably to the greatly disturbed nature of the containing rocks. The 

 rocks in which the borings have been made are much, faulted and in this 

 respect do not fulfil the conditions supposed to be favourable to the 

 occurrence of petroleum in quantity. 



Beginning with the Atlantic provinces proper, it may be remarked 

 that in Nova Scotia the coals are for the most part confined to the Car- 

 boniferous 'formations, and that the largest workable seams belong to the 

 middle portion or what is usually styled the productive coal-measures. 

 This formation is f oimd in several portions of the province, notably at 

 Sydney on the eastern coast of Cape Breton and in Eichmond and In- 

 verness on the west side of the island; at Pictou in the eastern part of 

 Kova Scotia proper; and at Springhill and the Joggins which are in 

 the north-west part of the province in Cumberland county. While 

 several other deposits of coal are known to exist elsewhere they are, so 

 far as can be ascertained, of but small economic value. 



Seams of considerable size are however found in the underlying por- 

 tion of the Middle Carboniferous, otherwise known as the Millstone-grit 

 formation, and occasionally the mineral occurs in the Upper Carbon- 

 iferous or as it is sometimes styled, the Permian, where coals of no 

 great thickness have been recognized in that part of the counties of 

 Colchester and Pictou which border on Northumberland strait. These 

 small seams cannot, however, in the present state of the industry, be- 

 worked at a profit. 



All the coals at present worked in the province are of the bitumin- 

 ous variety. Associated with these in the mines of Pictoa county are 

 occasional seams of a rich oil-shale known as Stellarite, which contains 

 a very large percentage of bituminous matter which can be obtained in 

 the form of oil by a process of distillation, resembling in this respect 

 certain oil-bearinu; beds which are found as interstratified members of 



