280 THE PICTOU COAL FIELT) — POOLE. 



moutli of Smelt brook/^^ where the Forsfe Avorks now are, and 

 opposite on the west side of the river at tlie Basin on the strike 

 of the same beds. The bituminous shale at the latter place was 

 found to " yield upwards of sixty gallons of crude oil of superior 

 quality to the ton."^-^ Then lower down the river, but higher in 

 the series, on Matheson's farm, opposite the Loading Ground, a 

 fifteen inch seam of good coal was found. Later exploratio)is 

 have re-exposed some thin seams beside a small bi-ook where 

 the road to Abercrombie Point crosses on the farm of Hugh A. 

 Fraser. 



Explorations round the shore atSkinner's Point, near the mouth 

 of the Middle river, shewed a one-inch seam of coal ; then higher 

 up the estuary but a short distance inside the mouth of Begg's 

 brook, some coal was dug near the surface ; again on the shore 

 between the coal wharves, and yet again on the bank above the 

 brick-yard on Stuart's farm, the August gale of 1873 swept clear 

 the crop of some thin coal beds dipping to the eastward. Besides 

 the coals mentioned to the north of Fraser's mountain some 

 beds were also found at Little Harbor ; but at all these points 

 they are thin and irregular without promise of value. 



The lower series of these beds are perhaps more fossiliferous 

 than is usual with strata classed as Permian, and those that 

 succeed the coal seam were evidently deposited in shallow waters. 

 It is common to find stigmaria roots in position with their root- 

 lets passing down through several layers of thin bedded earthy 

 sandstones. The black shales are laminated and similar to the 

 more compact shales of McLellan's brook. They are full of fish 

 remains, ferns and cordaites, &c. Tiie sandstone beds at Deacon's 

 Cove are (juarried, but the stone is not so good as higher in the 

 series. 



The plants of these beds are described in Acadian Geology and 

 its Supplement. 



(1) Acad. Geol., p, :i22, line 3. 



(•2) From a pit 2G feet deep the oil shale being 6.5 inches thick. At Deacon's cove a seam 14 

 inches thick dipped N. by E. 5. 



