CIS THE OIl^-l'IELDS OF EASTERN (AN'ADA. — EELS. 



last ceatiiry. The first experiments were made with the bitu- 

 minous eoals. but the discovery of a mineral, very rich in 

 bituiiiciu whieli Avas known as Hoo-head coal or Torban<' hill 

 mineral or Torbanite, soon furnished a new supjdy of the raw 

 material. This Torbanite yielded as much as 130 gallons of 

 crude oil to the ton, as compared with a yield of from 70 to U() 

 gallons from the coal. After the exhaustion of the Torl)ane hill 

 mineral attention was directed to the bituminous shales of the 

 coal-measures which were tirst worked in 1SG2. 



The growth of the shale-oil industry in Scotland may be 

 seen from the fact that the output of this material in l.sT-l: was 

 only 301,970 tons, while in 181)1 this has ri-en to 2,o:57,Oo2 

 tons for Scotland alone, yielding l:7,6-'>,458 gallons of crude 

 shale oil, the amount of capital invested being for that year no 

 less than £2,061,431, the yi(dd of oil being much greater than 

 the output of crude ])etroleum i.i the whole of Canada for the 

 year 1904. 



The shah^ series in Scotlan 1 is estimated to have a thick- 

 ness of about 3000 feet, and in this eight pri'ncipal bands of 

 oil-shale occur, varying in thickness from two to eighteen feet, 

 and are thus not very different in quantity from those found in 

 the Albert shales of New Jirunswick. 



Of the Scotch shale bands which most nearly resemble those 

 of Albert county, though none appear to contain as high a per- 

 centage of bitumen, the richest, known as the i'ell shale, yields 

 fi-om 30 to 40 gallons (d' crude oil to the ton, and from 25 to 33 

 pounds of ammonium sul})hate ; the liruxburn band is ])robably 

 next in im])ortance with a yield of 28 to 3,;; gallons crtide oil, 

 and from 20 to 32 pounds ammonium sulphate; the Dunnet 

 shales yield from 15 to 30 gallons, and rlie Curley shales yield 

 about 19 gallons of crude oil and from 50 to 00 pounds am- 

 monium sulphate. In ^-eological positio'n these Scotch shales 

 (•orres])ond almost exactly with those of New iirnnswick, being 

 situated between the Lower Carboniferous limestone and the 

 Old Red sandstone of the Devonian. 



