280 THE I'ICTOU COAL FIELD — POOLE. 



preferably put, its jiaitial retention. But it was not realized 

 until the field of obsei'vation was thus widened how much of 

 geological interest there is to be seen within an hour's drive of 

 Stellarton. 



Within that limit rocks of several ages can be studied. To the 

 south rise peaks of great antiquity, yet composed of slates and sand 

 stone with coarse grits, veined and contorted, tlerived from the 

 destruction of still older formations of which no remains are now 

 to be seen. These rocks are barren of fossils and for lack of more 

 accurate knowledge of tlieir age, they are classed as Cambro- 

 silurian. On the flanks of these higher hills rest slates of 

 exceeding fineness, which owe their oi'igin to deposits in deep 

 Silurian seas and they have retained remains of the life 

 of that epoch, of crinoids, mollusks, corals and trilobites. In 

 their turn as time rolled on these slates became exposed, suffered 

 disintegration, and supplied material for the growth of succeeding 

 systems. The ephemera of to-day can stand on the very bed they 

 gave to ocean on the cradling of the oldest members of the 

 Carboniferous. On other sides of the field lie the equivalents of 

 those deposits of later date, made of household interest by the 

 writings of Hugh Miller, that are brought by great convulsions 

 in contact with the coal measures. 



While these cycles were pi'oceeding but prior to the later 

 changes the region had been the seat of frequent volcanic 

 activity, the strata were rent, lava had flowed and heat 

 had altered the character of the deposits. And again 

 when time had built up thousands of feet of Carboniferous 

 strata, thick beds of coal, of sandstone, of shales and fireclays, 

 and consolidated them under the weight of their own accumula- 

 tions, had broken and viptilted them when no longer able to 

 bear the strain of seismic movements and then exposed them to 

 the denuding influences of air and sea, they in their turn made 

 a floor, now once more visible, on which a new epoch piled up a 

 new series of deposits widespread along the coast. These 

 brought to the surface remained exposed, wdiile elsewhere second- 

 ary formations were adding to their records, and they so remained 



