284 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



will in the near future without doubt be thoroughly exploited. In none 

 of the rock sections of these coal-bearing strata has any trace lof coal so 

 far been found in sediments of Carboniferous age. 



The coal areas of Vancouver island have for many years furnished 

 tîhe great bulk of the coal supply for the Pacific coast 

 not only in British Columbia but as far south at least as 

 San Francisco, where it competes with the inferior coals of 

 the states of Washington and California. The Vancouver coals 

 are apparently all located on the east side of the island, and though coal- 

 measure rocks and small indications of coal occur at a number of places 

 towards the northern extremity, the mining centres are still confined to 

 three localities, viz., Comox, JSfanainiio and Ladysmith, the original col- 

 lieries at Wellington having recently been abandoned after being worked 

 for nearly half a century. The coal-bearing rocks of the district are all of 

 Cretaceous age, and the coal itself is generally a high grade bituminous 

 variety, the seams varying in thickness from two to eight feet. A pecu- 

 liarity of these seams is the frequent change in size, owing to local thick- 

 ening or thinning out, generally due to small faults, rolls or slips, so that 

 a seam which may be worked for a time with a minimum thickness of 

 three to four feet may rapidly increase to fifteen or even twenty feet. 



Though small seams of coal or sometimes lignite have been reported 

 from several of the local basins to the north no precise details can be 

 given, other than that the containing rocks are of Cretaceous age. 



On the mainland of British Columbia coals of several kinds are also 

 found at widely separated localities. Most of the deposits as already in- 

 dicated occur in isolated basins or valleys, the associated sandstones and 

 shales in most cases resting upon volcanic or igneous rocks which re- 

 semble closely those seen along the west side of Vancouver island. The 

 greater portiyon of these inland coals are bituminous rather than lignitic, 

 though the latter is also found both as lignite and as lignitic coal. 



Along the lower Fraser, and between this and Burrard inlet a basin 

 of Cretaceous or Tertiarj"- rocks occurs. This may indicate the eastward 

 extension of the Vancouver coal-series. Good exposures of the sand- 

 stones are seen on the shores near Vancouver city and in the city itself. 

 Coal indications are seen at different places on or near the line of the 

 Canadian Pacific railway for more than thirty miles east, but no seams 

 of workable size have yet been discovered. Very little boring has yet 

 been attempted to prove the actual value of this basin, and it is therefore 

 impossible to say definitely whether workable deposits do or do not occur. 

 In a report by Dr. Da\rson, 1877-78, he states that ''bunches of good 

 l)ituminous coal are known to occur not far from Chilliwack village, as 

 also similar occurrences in the Cultus range of hills which skirt the 

 Sumas valley." 



