342 THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 



If, as is probable, these beds represent the Albion Mines Coal 

 q measures, or a part of them, it is evident that in crossing the trough 

 they have materially changed in the character and thickness of the 

 beds of coal. This was to have been anticipated from the views 

 previously stated, as the shaft which afforded the above section is 

 only about 600 yards from the conglomerate, and consequently the 

 locality cannot be very far from the original margin of the trough 

 in this direction. In the circumstances, the discovery that the coal 

 preserves its value thus near to the conglomerate, and is so accessible, 

 is very gratifying, and greatly enhances our estimation of the value 

 of this coal-field as a whole. I must add, however, that it is scarcely 

 fair to say, in the words of a recently published public Report, that 

 this discovery has given to the coal-field " a conformation which 

 . appears to have been entirely unsuspected." The synclinal form of 

 the measures was indicated in the former edition of this work, and is 

 a necessary consequence of the view as to the character of the great 

 conglomerate advocated therein. It was more fully stated in the 

 paper by Mr Poole and myself in the " Canadian Naturalist" for 1860, 

 and in my supplementary chapter in "Acadian Geology;" and the 

 outcrops of coal near New Glasgow, on this side of the trough, had 

 long been known. The conformation or structure of the area had 

 thus been established by geological investigation before the coal was 

 discovered opposite New Glasgow ; but this in no respect detracts 

 from the credit due to the gentlemen whose energy and enterprise 

 have developed the coal-beds in that locality. It is all the more 

 creditable to them that their operations were not undertaken on chance, 

 but on a consideration of probabilities established by facts previously 

 ascertained. The facilities for shipping the coal in the area above 

 referred to are very great, and there can be little doubt that the 

 outcrops discovered will be traced farther to the westward, and 

 perhaps afford scope for additional collieries in this direction. The 

 high angle at which the beds lie will require different management in 

 the details of mining from that which has been usual in the Pictou 

 ^ Coal-field, and it is not improbable that this high angle will be con- 

 nected with numerous fractures and abrupt flexures of the strata. 



(5.) Coal Areas on the East Side of the East River (Fig. 135 — 7, 8, 9). 



Openings have been made by the " German " Company on the 



continuation of the main seam eastward of the East River. The 



£. result is stated to have been, that the quality of the coal was found to 



be unsatisfactory,* and operations were consequently abandoned. 



This would appear to show that the inferiority of the main seam coal 



* Rutherford's Report, 1866. 



