404 THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 



St Ann's, Big Harbour on the Great Bras d'Or, etc. The latter 

 abounds in the same localities, as well as in several others where the 

 gypsurn is absent. The altered limestone at Craignish and Long 

 Point would afford several pretty and unusual varieties of coloured 

 marble. 



Coal occurs at Port Hood, and since the publication of the first- 

 edition of this work, in which I directed attention to this coal-field 

 as one of promise, it has been reported upon by Professor C. H. 

 Hitchcock, and opened on a small scale. The principal bed is stated 

 by Rutherford to be about 6 feet in thickness, with 4 feet 2 inches to 

 4 feet 4£ inches of good coal. Other valuable beds are said to have 

 been found at Mabou, Broad Cove, and Chimney Corner ; but they 

 have not yet been opened. 



In Victoria county the only mine now worked is that of New Camp- 

 belltown, on the Great Bras d'Or. At this place the Coal measures 

 are stated to rest against the mass of syenitic or gneissose rock of 

 Cape Dauphin, and to be in part in a nearly vertical position. In the 

 /_ principal workings of the mine two beds of coal have been opened up. 

 They are separated from each other by a thickness of 36 yards. The 

 upper is 4 feet thick, the lower 6 feet. In another part of the area, a 

 bed 4 feet 5 inches thick has been found. Its identity with either of 

 d the above mentioned has not yet been ascertained.* 



The yield of the Port Hood Mine for 1866 is stated to be 3824 tons, 

 that of the New Compbelltown Mine 3142 tons. 



Freestone for building is obtained, of good quality, at Port Hood 

 Island and Margarie, and also at Whykokomagh ; but it is not yet 

 worked on a large scale. 



The soils of this district being based principally on the calcareous 

 rocks of the Lower Carboniferous series, are in general of excellent 

 quality. 



Carboniferous District of Cape Breton County. 



This, though the last, is one of the principal Carboniferous districts 

 of the province, as it includes the important and productive Coal-fields 

 of Sydney, Lingan, Glace Bay, Cow Bay, and Mire, and exceeds all 

 the others in its export of coal, while it scarcely yields to the Joggins 

 in its excellent exposures of the Coal formation rocks and fossils. As 

 we owe most that is known of this district to the labours of R. Brown, 

 Esq. of Sydney, I shall avail myself, in the first instance, in describing 

 it, of the information contained in his papers ;-}- adding such other items 

 of information as I have collected in short visits to this interesting 



* Rutherford. f See List in Chapter I. 



