100 CARBONIFEROUS OF CAPE BRETON—GILPIN. 
ArT. VI—THE CARBONIFEROUS OF CAPE BRETON, WITH INTRO- 
pucTORY REMARKS.—ParRT III.—By E. GILPIN, JR., 
F..G. 8S. F, Ru, C. Ingpector' of Manes: 
Read March 12, 1888. 
As my paper to-night presents to the Institute little beyond 
columns of figures which are uninteresting to the general public, 
although eloquent to the chemist or mining engineer, I gladly 
avail myself of Mr. McKay’s suggestion that it should be pre- 
faced by a few remarks on Cape Breton Coal, of a character 
somewhat more popular. 
I may remark that I have already in previous contributions 
outlined the various carboniferous districts of Cape Breton, and 
summarised their more valuable deposits of coal. In the accom- 
panying paper, tabulated analyses of the seams worked at the 
different collieries, and of the typical seams of the western 
districts, serve as a ground of comparison with the coal products 
of other countries. 
The,popular idea is that a coal mine is a hole in the ground, 
and a coal field a section of country uninteresting from heaps of 
coal refuse, and the unpolished manners of its inhabitants. A 
closer survey, however, shows that the “holes in the ground” 
exercise the highest engineering and technical skill of those who 
conduct the operations connected with sinking them, and extract- 
ing the coal with the minimum of cost. The manners of the 
miners, if marked with a certain reserve toward strangers, are 
those of men whose occupations differ from the callings of 
ordinary humanity ; and among themselv-s they are friendly 
and charitable, and ever ready to dare the dangers of the mine 
if a comrade calls for help. When the figures of the statistician 
show that the power and wealth of a nation is directly measured 
by the number of tons of coal it produces and consumes, the 
subject acquires a general and vivid interest. Coal fields seem 
to be a special gift of Providence to nations, and curiously 
a 
