28 CARBONIFEROUS OF CAPE BRETON—GILPIN. 
exceeds three miles, and the largest continuous patch is that 
lying south of the Margaree River and Chimney Corner. 
The Judique district, forming the fifth of the synclinals into 
which Mr. Fletcher divides the Carboniferous of southern Cape 
Breton, contains measures of uncertain age. They are largely 
composed of soft sandstone and marls, frequently gypseous, and 
carrying small impure seams of coal. They are possibly mill- 
stone grit, and are succeeded to the north by the economic coal 
strata of Port Hood. There has been apparently in the Judique 
district conditions of deposition permitting the growth of coal 
plants, and at a small vertical horizon of conditions favoring the 
accumulation of gypseous and calcareous matter. The section 
given in the Geological Survey Report, 1879-82, is on this 
account very interesting. It may possibly be applied at some 
time to the elucidation of the problems offered in the River 
Inhabitants Basin. 
At Port Hood the exact extent of the coal bearing measures 
is still unsettled. Two large seams are known—one is exposed 
at low water, and said to be six feet thick; the other seam crops 
near the shore, with a dip also toward the Gulf. The following 
section of it is given by Mr. Fletcher:— 
ite in. 
Ey] ss 0Valib lap slo BLING Sty 2s > cnc Ange ney de pee if 5 
Slaty wand: 21S ieee eee 0 9 
Coals ee ts ok cites SRRe ee oe ee 4 2? 
(ROCHA ee) Mac ee 6 4, 
The seam dips at an angle of 27°, and was opened by a slope 
in 1865, by the Cape Breton Company. Another slope was 
driven some distance to the north to win the same seam ina 
submarine area held by Judge Tremain and others, but was 
closed in 1878. Formerly a sand bar connected the mainland 
with Smith Island, but its destruction by the sea ruined the har- 
bour, and any attempts at coal shipping would be attended with 
difficulty, unless, as has been suggested, a fresh bar could be 
formed by sinking a row of cribs along the line of the old one. 
The extent inland of this district is still unknown. The crops of 
