CARBONIFEROUS OF CAPE BRETON—GILPIN. 105 
In Cow Bay the same forces have formed another basin, called 
a synclinal, the seams dipping down on the Long Beach side 
and up again on the Gowrie side. But the axis or general incli- 
nation of the trough is still to the eastward. 
Finally, the seams of the Cow Bay district, after crossing the 
narrow strip of land forming the north side of Mira Bay, pass 
under the Atlantic and are lost beyond the three mile limit. 
Speculation as to the original extent of this coal field is profit- 
less, if interesting. But we do know that, reasoning from a fair 
basis of facts, we have now but a remnant of the great coal field 
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. When we consider the fringes of 
coal fields, and of carboniferous strata which occur around Cape 
Breton, on the west side of Newfoundland, in the Magdalen 
Islands, and along the northern shores of Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick, we can scarcely realize that over that great Gulf the 
forests of the Carboniferous once spread, amid the voiceless and 
sullen lagoons of the mysterious country. 
Owing to sudden pressure or other causes, the movements of 
the coal-bearing strata are sometimes accompanied by breaks or 
faults. Often great blocks of strata, miles in extent, thousands 
of feet in depth, and weighing myriads of tons, have been raised 
out of the continuity of the coal field, so that the miner suddenly 
finds in front of him a wall of stone. His coal bed has vanished, 
cut off by the irresistible foree of the great lever which is con- 
tinually raising and depressing continents. Much trouble is often 
experienced in finding the lost bed of coal, which is sometimes 
moved many feet away. In the Cape Breton coal field the 
faults are few and of little moment,—a fact which not only 
reduces the risk and expense of mining, but encourages the cap- 
italist and engineer in starting new pits. There are few coal 
fields of which it can be said, as in Cape Breton, that any seam 
can be located at any point inside the boundaries of the coal 
district with a margin of error not exceeding a few feet. 
The question has often been asked me, “are the seams of the 
Cow Bay, Sydney, and Glace Bay districts distinct, or are they 
the same seams interrupted by the sea as the flexures of the 
strata approach and leave the shore. The answer is that they 
