THE PICTOU COAL FIELD — POOLE. 283 



interest which this line of substitution has for our question lies 

 in the direction given to it, it is parallel to the range of meta- 

 morphic rocks that extends from Waters' hill to the Middle river- 

 A similar parallelism has been since then found in the deteriora- 

 tion in thickness of the Acadia seam in the Westville section of 

 the field, and in the size of the grains in the sandstones and grits 

 of the associated rocks. Indicative it -would seem of the exis- 

 tence at the period under review of the hill range as an island or 

 cape behind which in quiet waters the sedimentation of the Coal 

 Measures took place. A view that is strengthened by the dis- 

 cover}^ that the New Glasgow conglomerate, the lase of the 

 assumed Permian, is known in the country about Green hill and 

 the Middle river to rest only on metamorphic and Lower Car- 

 boniferous rocks which it is hence surmised then lay in shallow 

 waters or exposed above the surface of the sea. That the older 

 and the newer rocks of this section of the County are now di- 

 vided by the North fault from the Coal Measures does not con- 

 flict with this view of past conditions while it may account for 

 the absence of Coal Measures inclining from them towards the 

 southward. 



Transferring our attention to the east end of the field we find 

 the Vale coal seams where they lie near the old rocks carry more 

 ash than when further away and their associated strata include 

 some pebble beds not repeated in sections more remote. ^^^ The 

 McBean seam coarse in the western ground which is undisturbed 

 by faults rapidly improves in quality as it leaves the hills al- 

 though at the same time in its trend to the eastward it gets 

 among faults and approaches the northern limit of the field. 

 That the limit at this point is not one of deposition the quality 

 of the coal would indicate, just as at the western end of the field 

 the superior character of the coal in the middle portion suggests 

 its formation away from the contaminating influence of littoral 

 sediments which deteriorated the seams at their extreme north 

 and south outcrops. In both localities this condition implies an 

 original extension of the seams east and west to a distance at 

 present undetermined. 



(1) Logan, p. 35. 



