104 CARBONIFEROUS OF CAPE BRETON—GILPIN. 
close to the surface in Cape Breton is one as yet little under- 
stood by geologists, but it is a subject fascinating from its 
grandeur, and to its operations do we owe all our mines. There 
have been elevations and depressions in the earth’s surface ever 
since its creation, caused by internal forces, contraction of its 
crust, accumulation of sediments, or what not, we see the effect, 
and bless the hand that guided the cause. In the Sydney dis- 
trict it appears that the old, old rocks, the granites and gniesses 
of Coxheath, Boisdale and St. Ann’s were forced slowly and 
eradually upwards. This motion enforced a tilting of the strata 
holding the coal so that they inclined to the eastward. This was 
continued until the “ Atlantic” of that date came in upon the 
land, and had boundaries approximating those of the present day. 
Had the uplifted edges of the older rocks been straight, like a 
ruler, the coal-bearing strata would have dipped uniformly away 
from them, and remained parallel throughout the district. But 
nature abhors a straight line, devoid of beauty save to the 
mathematician. Owing to underlying spurs of the older strata 
projecting beneath the coal measures the uplifting of the former 
produced transverse subordinate tilting in addition to the general 
or continental inclination to the east. The effect of this has 
been to throw the seams into a series of curves, having the ocean 
asa secant. Taking the coal seams of the Sydney district as 
they are met at Cape Dauphin they are seen ridged up against 
the Syenite of the Cape, then lessening in the steepness of their 
dip they range across the Big and Little Bras d’Or to Sydney 
Harbor, where their inclination is about four degrees. As they 
cross the harbor they turn more to the north-east, and dip 
steeply until they turn again with the regular dip and run into 
the sea at Lingan. Emerging again they stretch in a regular 
curve for miles across Glace Bay Brook and Basin, and turning 
again toward the north-east with increasing dips enter the sea 
at the north head of Cow Bay. Hitherto the transverse subor- 
dinate foldings have not been marked enough to interrupt the 
continuity of the strata enclosing the coal beds, but here the 
upward movement has brought lower rocks to the surface, and 
there is an interval of rocks which do not hold coal seams. 
