THE OIL-FIEI.DS OF EASTERN CANADA.^ — ELLS. 613 



made near Hautsport in this formation was also devoid of 

 results as regarded the finding of either coal or petroleum. As 

 is Gaspe and elsewhere it may be generally inferred that in 

 such a series of titled and faulted strata the chances of finding' 

 oil in economic quantity are by no means good, and the ultim- 

 ate result of all these attempts, at places so widely separated, 

 will probably be the same. 



The only other source of petroleum known to us in this 

 province is the band of "SteUarite", found in associatio^n with 

 one of the coal seams of the Pictou basin. This mineral is 

 reported to yield more than 100 gallons of crude oil per ton by 

 distillation, equalling in this respect the Albertite of IS^ew 

 Brunswick and the Torbanite of Scotland, both of which are 

 now practically exhausted. No attempt has been made in recent 

 years to utilize this mineral for the manufacture of oil. 



It would appear that as a rule the shales of the eastern 

 provinces do not , readily yield oil except by distillation 

 although i'n places containing a large percentage of bituminous 

 matter in composition; and from the results which have attend- 

 ed the borings at a number of points 'no large deep-seated 

 reservoirs of liquid petroleum are likelv to be encoimtered 

 from which "'gushers'' may be derived. 



The largest and most important body of these bituminous 

 shales occurs in Albert county, New Brunswick, whence the 

 name "Albert shale". Attention was directed to this locality 

 more than half a century ago by the finding of a body of what 

 was at first supposed to be a coal of superior quality. Some 

 persons, however, contended that the substance had more of the 

 nature of hardened pitch or asphalt and was not a true coal, 

 and a legal contest ensued since the ownership of the 

 property depended upooi the actual determination of this ques- 

 tion. Finally, after hearing a great mass of so-called expert 

 evidence, the fi'nding of the court was to the effect that the min- 

 eral in question was a true coal and not an asphalt, only two 



