THE CARBONIFEROUS OF CAPE BRETON—GILPIN. 289 
ArT. VII —THE CARBONIFEROUS OF CAPE Breton.—By EpWwIN 
GiuPin, Jr. A.M, PGS. F.R.S.C., Inspector of 
Mines. 
(Part I.) 
Tuts formation is conspicuously developed in Cape Breton, 
and, apart from the fisheries, to its presence is due what measure: 
of prosperity the Island enjoys. Its soils in the limestone dis- 
tricts are very fertile, and the poverty of the clays overlying 
the coal measures and the Millstone Grit is counterbalanced by 
the stores of coal which have been extensively worked. Sur- 
rounding great part of the Western and Southern shores, and 
fringiug the Bras D’Or Lake, it is accessible to the farmer and 
the miner, and ready outlets are afforded for its productions. 
Sir William Dawson, in his Acadian Geology, divides the for- 
mation, as met in the Lower Provinces, into five subdivisions: 
I. Upper Coal Formation. 
II. Productive Coal Measures. 
IIL Millstone Grit. 
IV. Marine Limestone Series. 
V. Lower Coal Measures. 
Some districts do not present all these sub-divisions, the lowest 
one being frequently wanting or sparingly represented ; and in 
many cases no division line can be drawn between the Millstone 
Grit in its passage upward into the Productive Measures or down- 
ward into the Marine Limestones. The most instructive section: 
is that presented in Cumberland County, where all the subdi- 
visions can be recognised in passing from Hillsboro, in New 
Brunswick, to the Joggins, in Cumberland Co. In Cape Breton 
this gradual passage of the subdivisions is strongly marked in 
several cases. 
Here the Carboniferous measures may be said, roughly speak-~ 
ing, to occupy three principal districts. The Western District, 
with the exposures of Bay St. George and Port @ Port, in New- 
foundland, forms the Eastern rim of the great Carboniferous 
