FOLDINGS OP THE PICTOU COAL FIELD. 27 



ferons, and Pre-Carbouiferous, on the south side. Faults less sharply defined, for reasons 

 to be given further on, mark the eastern and western boundaries of the district. 



The coal fields of Nova Scotia, equally with those of Pennsylvania, bear witness to 

 the disturbances marking the close of the Carboniferous of eastern America. Dana remarks 

 that the force producing the Appalachian foldings acted at right angles to the courses of 

 flexures, therefore, to the general course of the Atlantic ; that it acted from the ocean, and 

 that it was slow in action and long continued. In the district under consideration, equally 

 as in those of Cumberland and Cape Breton, the force was at right angles to the shore, 

 and the flexures may be regarded as the north-easterly prolongations of those referred to 

 by him. In his remarks, he dwells upon the fact that all the Palaeozoic were included in 

 the grand scheme of folding. 



In Nova Scotia, however, two systems at least of folding are clearly noted. The 

 Silurian and Cambro-Silurian measures were folded into massive east and west anticlinals, 

 having a general course closely corresponding to that of the coast, and remarkably parallel 

 to each other. This folding gave rise to numerous fissures parallel to the strata, which 

 were filled with quartz, frequently auriferous. Speaking in general terms, the folding 

 preceded the filling of the veins with quartz, and this again preceded the Carboniferous, 

 as the lower beds of this formation, when they rest on the auriferous slates, are known to 

 carry free gold. The exact date can be fixed only by assuming that the intrusive masses 

 of granite, which are older also by similar proof than the Carboniferous, and penetrate 

 Oriskany sandstones, are, in addition, connected in rough contemporaneity with the 

 foldings carrying auriferous veins, in the neighbourhood of which they frequently occur. 



In the present connection, this point is of interest chiefly as showing that older 

 forces acted on the Pre-Carboniferous rocks in a similar manner with regular foldings, 

 great faults, and immense denudation beginning prior to the Carboniferous, and 

 continuing to the present day. 



The following list, taken from surveys made by the Department of Mines to ascertain 

 the general course of these auriferous anticlinals, in order that the mining areas might 

 run fairly on the courses of the strata veins, shows this striking regularity : — 



Sherbrooke E & W, 



Fifteen Mile Stream S 80° E, 



Beaver Dam S 57° E, 



Tangier E & W, 



Caribou '. N 87° E, 



Jennings N 74° E, 



Chezetcoolc N 75° E, 



Lawrencetown S 87° E, 



Waverley N 81° E, 



Oldham N 82° E. 



Were the Carboniferous horizons of Nova Scotia superimposed with only local uncon- 

 formity upon the lower members of the Palajozoic series, any folding force would produce 

 regular flexures pushed, perhaps, in places to the extent of overturn dips, as actually took 

 place in some of the older foldings referred to above. This was not the case, as these 

 measures succeeded with marked and complete unconformability. 



If the force alluded to by Dana be applied under the conditions afforded by the 

 hardened and irregular outlines of the folded slates and quartzites, stiffened by masses 



