THE PICTOU COAL FIELD —POOLE. 297 



on the side of the hill where two water runs have cut gullies. 

 At both of these spots the coal has been at one time on fire but 

 at what period there is no record ; curiously enough between 

 them and the brook there are several patches of burnt s^il which 

 suggest that some forest fire ignited gas freely given off from 

 the faults that pass through this ground. It is known that gas 

 was lit at the surface over a fault beyond the brook near the 

 McKenzie pit when explorations were first begun. This also 

 could be done on the intervale of the East river over the main 

 seam, and can still be done on McCulloch's brook a hundred 

 yards below the Stellar slope. The crop of the main seam also 

 had been at some remote period on fire on both sides of Coal 

 brook. The coal having burnt along on the west side for 1000 

 feet down to the drainage of the brook. The first pit sunk 

 through it for the Dalhousie workings furnace pit had to be 

 abandoned because it was in burnt coal. 



The position of the Third seam on the brook being established 

 by the explorations of 1889 it follows that the McKenzie pit, by 

 the side of the old Middle river road 7 chains west of the brook 

 is on the McGregor and not on the Deep seam as hitherto sup- 

 posed. The McKenzie air pit was on the south side of the old 

 road passing through 19 feet surface clay. The east workings of 

 the McKenzie pit abutted against a fault, an upthrow probably of 

 a few feet. The crop of this seam is next seen at the crossing of the 

 old road over the brook. Then it was found faulted l)y a, trial 

 pit 130 feet further to the east and again in line 22 chains 

 east of McKenzie pit by level and the Purves slope which cor- 

 responded with trial holes P and Q of 1852. This slope is spoken 

 of page 76 of the Report as on the Third seam. The ground 

 along the brook to the southward was pieiced by trial pits re- 

 corded in Mr. H. Poole's paper in the Transactions for 1863 and 

 was again gone over by the Acadia Coal Co. at a later date con- 

 firming the previous conclusions that several minor faults ran 

 parallel with the Irook and increasingly deflected the crops of 

 the underlying measures to the southward. 



Passing south to the railway and to McAdam's cut fault there 

 lies on the west side a broad belt of fireclay succeeded at the 



