the rocky escarpments were left in view with seams of 

 coal exposed, and these when discovered were mined 

 from the daylight, down, until Dame Nature's ob- 

 stacles cut off pursuit. And thereby hangs a tale, for 

 just as in human life the good is mixed with ill, so the 

 first beneficent rising of the giant mountain being all 

 good, his after shaking and lateral push were evil of 

 the direst kind, and many a "fault," "synclinal" and 

 'anti-dmal" crush, with "troughs" and "pockets" 

 large and small, and total "wants," and troubles in- 

 numerable, are the coal operator's opprobria and in- 

 heritance, and the Island coal seams have their full 

 share of these incommoding and expensive ills. Our 

 coal barons deserve, at least, the meed of commenda- 

 tion, for their undaunted courage, perseverance and 

 plucky determination, in combatting with the many 

 difficult troubles and discouraging circumstances 

 which they have shown in carrying on the industry 

 underground in the face of reckless foreign competi- 

 tion, congested markets and tariff handicaps. 



The explorations so far made on Vancouver Island 

 have determined the existence of certain well-defined 

 areas of the sandstone and conglomerate strata that 

 indicate the existence of productive coal measures- 

 of the cretaceous age proved in some instances by the 

 exposure of upper seams of coal, good enough, which 

 though too thin for mining use, are favourable indi- 

 cations that workable coal beds will be reached at 

 lower depths. 



COAL AREAS. 



The most valuable of these coal areas stretch along 

 the eastern coast and at the northern end trend round 

 to Quatsino on the west. Coal was first discovered 

 on Beaver Harbour in the north in 1835, leading in 

 course of time to the establishment by the Hudson's 

 Bay Company of a coal mine at Fort Rupert. This 

 field extends from Fort Rupert to Port McNeil, 

 some fifteen miles to the south, and is known as the 

 Suquash coal area and Malcolm Island has the same 

 measures there. From the Suquash there is a valley 

 that reaches Quatsino Sound, a very spacious inlet 



