278 THE PICTOU COAL FIELD — POOLE. 



conglomerate, and as yet the conglomerate has nowhere been 

 found to rest on Coal Measures, nor has the reverse been seen. 

 Such an absence may favour the contention that the New Glasgow 

 conglomerate is attenuated and appears in the Millstone Grit 

 beds at the liend of the Middle river above French's tunnel, but 

 such a disposition is not here advocated. 



When endeavouring to reconstruct the conditions which exist- 

 ed prior to the time when the dislocation known as the North 

 fault occurred and brought the coal measures in contact with the 

 conglomerate it seemed clear that the beach on which the con- 

 glomerate was formed and collected must have had to the south 

 of it at the time of its formation a shore or cliff of rocks less 

 easy of erosion than the soft strata now so close to the escarp- 

 ment on the west side of the East river. (^> So clean a base as is 

 shewn at Blackwood's mill dam could not have been in deep 

 water, but must have been at that time exposed to a strong surf 

 or tideway. 



Respecting the rocks under the conglomerate east of New Glas- 

 gow the conclusion is tliat they are Upper Coal Measures, lieing 

 distinguishable from the Middle Coal Measures by having red 

 sandstones and marls intercalated with the grey rocks and having 

 in other respects no resemblance to the red rocks of the Mill- 

 stone Grit or Lower Carboniferous within the limits of the 

 field. 



The key to the relation of this conglomerate with the rocks on 

 which it rests is possibly to be found to the eastward of the coal 

 field where the Productive Coal Measures are absent and the 

 strata of Pine Tree predominate, and come in direct contact with 

 Lowey Carboniferous and metamorphic rocks. Mr. Fletcher 

 state/;, 92 P. Vol. IV., the conglomerate of Glenshee along the 

 telegraph road yielded a pebble of earthy red ha3matite. The 

 New Glasgow conglomerate contains many such small pebbles at 

 New Glasgow and eastward, while at Alma pebbles of compact 

 red haematite an inch in diameter are numerous, associated with 

 occasional boulders of a conglomerate marked with pelibles of 

 red jasper, such as occurs on Urquhart's farm between Oliver's 



(1) Acad. Geol. p. 34L' notices coal preserves its character close to the orginal niarg-in of the trough 

 near New Glasg-ow. 



