THE PICTOU COAL FIELD — POOLE. 231 



contri I aiti ng their quota of disintegrated material until the glacial 

 epoch came and spread its coating over all. 



These several systems are outlined on the accompaning map 

 but it is (juite possible that as here distinguished the lines 

 of demarkation may not agree with those on the map of 

 Pictou County to be published by the Survey with Mr. Fletcher's 

 concurrent report,* for exposures being infrequent lines of contact 

 must necessarily be conjectural in many places and therefore the 

 boundaries here given are to be taken as mere expressions of 

 individual opinion and subject to criticism. 



Configuration of the Surface : — No contour map of the 

 field has been made other than by the Intercolonial Coal Com- 

 pany about their Drummond mine, but a general idea of the 

 relative elevation may be foi'med by assuming the boundary 

 lines of the formations that surround the coal measures as the 

 bases of hills and by noting the river courses and the heights 

 recorded on the map. The elevations shewn on the railways are 

 from levellings, while most of the others are fi'om aneroid readings. 

 The map also defines by dotted lines levels at various depths of 

 the pit workings. 



Recent Deposits : — Subsequent to the deposition of the strata 

 that have the red New Glasgow conglomerate as their base there 

 are no remains of any other system until the Glacial epoch, and 

 it would seem that since the disturbances that in mesozoic times 

 defined the general outline of the country erosion has been con- 

 tinuous. Small deposits of peat, silt and river gravels are 

 additions in modern <lays; the former only has been partially 

 mapped, while no attempt has been made to shew the glacial drift 

 which covers so much of the coal field and the surrounding for- 

 mations at low elevations and on the northern slopes of the hills, 

 the lea side of the drift in this part of the Province. 



This deposit greatly interferes with the study of the subjacei:^^ 

 strata and leaves much conjectural in the disturbed portions. 

 It is so often foreign to the composition of the underlying rocks 

 that it is very misleading to the prospector. A notable case 



•Issued May 1893, without a map. 



