40 THE CARBONIFEROUS. 



the Carboniferous system in the Pictou or Cumberland areas, 

 amounting to many thousands of feet, and shows how very unequal 

 subsidence and deposition must have been even in neighbouring 

 areas not separated by any physical barrier. The facts thus ascer- 

 tained do not increase the probability of the discovery of valuable 

 coals in this great area. Some oi the widely-extended thin beds 

 may perhaps admit, at some time, of being worked on a large scale, 

 and possibly large beds may exist in the central part of the area 

 remote from the older rocks, or on the north-eastern coast. The coast 

 between Bathurst and Miramichi River, and that between the latter 

 and Buctouche, afford perhaps some of the most promising localities. 

 The Cumberland Coal-field has attracted much attention, and more 

 especially that part of it in the Springhill district which is traversed 

 by the Intercolonial Railway, affording so great facilities for the 

 transmission of its produce. Mr Barlow reports* that in the Spring- 

 hill areas eight or nine seams of coal have been discovered, the prin- 

 cipal one being 11 feet in thickness, and affording coal of very 

 good quality. There is an overlying seam 13 feet thick, but 

 with two clay partings. Mr Hartley gives as the analysis of the 

 Springhill coal : — 



Volatile matter .... 35-39 

 Fixed carbon .... 60*46 

 Ash 4-15 



100-00 



So that this appears to be an excellent coal, altogether superior to 

 that of which I have given an analysis (Ac. Geol., p. 221), and which 

 was an outcrop sample, the only one that I could at that time obtain. 

 The Reports of Sir W. E. Logan and Mr Hartley (Geol. Survey 

 Reports, 1869) have added greatly to our knowledge of the struc- 

 b ture of the Pictou Coal-field, and more especially of the faults 

 traversing it, and the distribution of the measures on the' east side of 

 the East River, and the actual productive limits of the Coal-field. A 

 detailed map accompanies the Report, and Mr Hartley has given 

 tables of analyses and practical trials of the coals. On the east side 

 of the East River, the trough-shaped arrangement already referred to 

 appears to continue as far as the left bank of Sutherland's River. A 

 subordinate anticlinal appears, however, to occur in the middle of the 

 trough, or rather nearer the East River, and there are a number of 

 faults, both parallel and transverse to the axis of the trough. In the 



* Report Geo]. Survey, 18GG-G9. 



