388 SURFACE GEOLOGY, PICTOU COAL FIELD—POOLE. 
Art. VIIL.—SurRFAcE GEOLOGY OF THE Pictou CoAL FIELD. 
By H. S. Poots, F. G. S., &c., STELLARTON, N. S. 
(Received 19th May, 1890. ) 
BouLDER clay covers large portions of this field; it often con- 
tains pebbles of the rocks immediately underlying, mixed with 
fragments of those passed over by the ice flow from the higher 
ground lying to the south and southwest, and with occasional 
boulders well rounded and travel-worn of still older rocks from 
more distant localities. 
One of the largest of these known in the neighborhood lies on 
the edge of the Pictou Town Branch Railway, near Stellarton, 
and must weigh not less than forty tons. Some of the smaller 
are striated, but much of the rock of which the pebbles and 
boulders in the clay are composed is of too perishable a nature to 
retain surface markings after exposure to the elements, and striz 
are rare. 
In the clay there are frequently found grains and small peb- 
bles of coal, which there is every reason to believe are from the 
outcrops of beds proved to be close at hand, and these, it is 
noticeable, have their edges rubbed off as from exposure to much 
abrasion, although removed but a comparatively short distance 
from their parent source. 
In places the clay has been cut through, and the outcrop of 
soft measures in a friable condition exposed. The dark shales, 
coal and fireclays appearing in the clay as darker streaks, which 
gradually take on the character of individual beds decomposed 
in lessening degree until a compact form is acquired, and al- 
though the direction of the outcropping may be contrary to that 
assumed for the flow of the drift, no folding back of the streaks 
has been noticed in the sections. 
Thin beds, or partings of sand, are occasionally seen in the clay. 
and streaks of various tints of red may be detected. 
