CARBONIFEROUS OF CAPE BRETON—GILPIN. 107 
nous and coking. Many of the seams yield large volumes of gas 
of good quality, provided jthat a reasonable care be exercised in 
screening and picking. For domestic purposes they have proved 
acceptable wherever offered, as they kindle readily and leave 
little ash. Four house use public opinion has selected the Sydney 
luines’ inain seam as tie typical coal of the Eastern district. 
These coals have been largely used for marine and railway 
steam raising, and compare favorably with any foreign competi- 
tors. They may be ranked between the best Welsh and the best 
Newcastle steam coals, judging from analyses and the reports of 
practical tests on English and French men-of-war. The tests 
recorded appear to prove the contention that the evaporative 
power of a coal is in proportion to the total amount of carbon 
contained in it, and that the greater the gas value the less the 
amount of water it is capable of evaporating. It is to be regret- 
ted that a series of rigid tests of the coals now worked could not 
be made by an impartial authority, as they would undoubtedly 
show that with proper handling their evaporative powers are 
surpassed by few coals now used for marine boilers. 
For coke-making these coals are well adapted, as they yield, 
from practical tests, a fuel excellently suited for iron and copper 
smelting. The adoption of any cheap form of washing would 
free the coal from the admixed stone and pyrites, and present a 
coke superior to that of Durham and Connelsville. 
In presenting the following set of analyses of Coals of the 
eastern district I have follcwed the tabulation of the Geological 
Survey, altho’ it differs from that of several writers,and have not 
attempted the correllation of the Gardner, Carrol, and other seams 
found underlying those at present being worked. 
Pursuant to this arrangement the Hub and Crandal seams are 
grouped together. Next in descending order comes the seam 
known locally as the Block House, Harbor, Victoria and the 
Sydney Mines worked by the Block House, Glace Bay, Victoria, 
and Sydney Colleries. Below this comes the most extensively 
worked seam of the district known as the McAuley, Phelan, and 
Lingan and worked by the Gowrie, Ontario, Caledonia, Reserve, 
Bridgeport and Lingan mines. The next seam to be noticed is 
