igii] Canadian Coal Resources, 99 



CANADIAN COAL RESOURCES. 



By D. B. Dowling, 



Dominion Geological Survey, Ottawa. 



{Read 25th February, 191 1.) 



The coal areas of North America, as outlined at the present day, 

 show a sufficiently large amount to warrant the statement that the first 

 evidence of the shortage of coal will come from the older countries. 

 Canada and the United States having 18 times the amount of coal that 

 there is in England and Germany or 35 that of England. The large 

 area in Canada which is underlain by older beds than those producing 

 coal will probably be found rich in other minerals. The remainder and 

 possibly the portion destined to become the most thickly populated is 

 well provided with fuel. The fact that the continent possessed coal 

 in mineable areas seems not to have been published by any of the early 

 navigators till about 1670. The French had settled Cape Breton and 

 explored a large portion of its area. Nicholas Denys was appointed 

 governor of the eastern part in 1637. Like modern prospectors, he ap- 

 plied for a concession (which was granted in 1654) for the privilege to 

 mine gold, silver, copper and other minerals on the whole island, paying 

 therefor a royalty of ten per cent, of the profits. His prospectus, pub- 

 lished in Paris 1672, states that there were mines of coal throughout the 

 whole extent of the concession near the sea coast of a quality equal to 

 the Scotch. The first attempt at mining was, on the authority of Mr. 

 Richard Brown,* made upon the 10 ft. seam on the north side of Cow 

 Bay in 1720, when the construction of the Fortress at Louisburg, was 

 begun. Cargoes of coal were exported to Boston in 1724 and the French 

 shipped some few cargoes to Martinique in 1728. Later the explorations 

 of the English settlers farther south brought to light the presence of 

 coal deposits in Virginia and coal was mined near Richmond. Other 

 early mines were opened in New Brunswick by the French near Grand 

 Lake. 



Following the early discoveries of coal along the Atlantic coast the 

 tide of settlement moved ever westward and in its progress there was ac- 



* The Coal Fields and Coal Trade of Cape Breton, by Richard Brown, London, 1871. 



