THE PICTOU COAL FIELD — POOLE 235 



where they are harren of workable seams. There is a group of 

 beds some 40 feet thick under the Marsh pit series and overljdng 

 the widow CHishohn seam on McLellan's brook that were cut by 

 No. 2 borehole of the Acadia Coal Company in 1878, which are 

 mottled with ]-ed somewhat similarly to the sandstones at the 

 New Glasgow athletic grounds and other spots along the north- 

 ern margin of the field, believed to be of other age There is 

 also a small local band overlj'ing the Deep seam on the high 

 ground approaching the McCulloch brook fault where that seam 

 begins to become inferior in quality, and some of the sandstone 

 bands thrown out on sinking the Forster pit became red on 

 exposure to the weather.* 



The red rocks are found of many shades varjang from the 

 bright brick colour of the metamorphic beds at Fish-pools, River- 

 ton, and the purple grits of McLellan's mountain to the dull 

 and chocolate reds of the Lower Carboniferous and the Millstone 

 Grit, and the fresher tints of the Permian with their local and 

 characteristic metallic sheen. As it were a forecast of the latter, 

 there seems a general resemblance to them in certain beds that 

 lie on the northern limits of the field. These beds are classed 

 as Millstone Grit, but it must be confessed there is an inability to 

 trace a similarity either in structural character, cleavage or 

 appearance with rocks taken as tj'pical of that system in this 

 field, for instance, with those of McLeod's brook and those on the 

 East river aljove the brick -yard unmistakeably of the same age. 

 The I'elative age of the red rocks in the several sections of this 

 field has been so difterently regarded by independent observers 

 that in oflfering a new arrangement there is here no singularity. 

 What the proper horizons are is of course still open to (question, 

 but in the recognition of distinct groups in series hitherto classed 

 as identical an opening is made for future closer comparison and 

 proper classification The two divisions of the Fish-pool beds 

 put as Millstone Grit in section 1, p. 60, of the Report of 

 Progress will no longer be classed with those of McLeod's brook, 

 or of Smoky-town, or of McLean's brook, or of Pine-tree. There 

 can be no doubt that had Sir W. Logan himself compared the 



♦Logan's report p. 34. 



