CARBONIFEROUS OF CAPE BRETON—GILPIN. 101 
enough the English-speaking races have the lion’s share of coal 
fields, and have well availed themselves of their privileges, 
The extraction and exportation only of coal however is not a 
permanent source of wealth. The treasures of the mine resemble 
more those of the forest, than the treasures of the field and of 
the sea. Every ton of coal when it leaves the country represents, 
in most cases it is presumed, a certain amount of profit, but its 
removal increases the cost of the extraction of the next ton, and 
like a tree of the forest it cannot be replaced. It must be used 
locally to smelt the ore, forge the metal, ply the loom, or to build 
the multifarious machinery demanded to-day, before its true 
value is seen. One man can dig a ton of coal, but two must toil 
before it has yielded up its many items of power, or heat, or light. 
Take the mother country, did she export all her coal, and close 
the myriad factories supported by it, her position would be vastly 
different. 
The few introductory remarks I am permitted to make should 
however be directed rather to the geological than the economic 
side of my paper. 
Jould the student carry himself backward, beyond the time of 
Confederation, to the period of the formation of the Cape Breton 
coal beds, and take his stand on the granitic hills of Cape Dau- 
phin, at the entrance of the Bras d’Or lake, his eyes would 
wander over a view widely different from that of the present 
day. Instead of the rolling hills covered with spruce under- 
growth, and occasional ridges of hardwood which now stretch 
eastwardly from Sydney to the shores of the ever-encroaching 
Atlantic, he would see, mile upon mile, a dead monotonous level, 
with here and there dull sluggish reaches and swamps of dark 
peaty waters, while overhead the rays of a sun warmer than that 
now allotted to us, could scarce dissipate the clouds of vapor it 
kept drawing from the heated water and steaming soil. 
On a nearer approach, this uninteresting country, which we 
would compare to some of the tidal marshes of the Bay of Fundy, 
is found to be covered with the densest of vegetation. No 
modern forest, tropical or temperate, reproduces the curious scene. 
A closer study, however, would detect some trees bearing a fan- 
