AND NOVA SCOTIA. 105 



Albert County, and, indeed, the whole of New Bruns 

 wick, are still farther to the west ; the probability is, 

 therefore, that a bed so thick even as four feet is not to 

 be expected in this province. 



Upon the river Macan, about fifteen miles to the east 

 of the south Joggins, on Cumberland Basin, Dr Gessner 

 states that a bed of coal exists, of good quality, and of 

 ten feet in thickness.* If this be so, it would appear 

 that, in these fifteen miles, a ten-feet seam on the 

 Macan had thinned out to four feet almost at the Joggins, 

 since there are none thicker there when all are supposed 

 to be seen. If this rapid rate of thinning continue, the 

 nine-inch seam at Kichardson s mill may be the con 

 tinuation of the four-feet seam of the Joggins, and no 

 larger seams are to be looked for in that locality. 



Probable, or even possible deductions, such as this, 

 though of purely theoretical interest to the traveller or 

 foreigner, become of vast economical importance to the 

 inhabitants of the province of New Brunswick. If they 

 are hereafter to find no thick seams of coal, where are 

 all their dreams of future mining wealth and of pros 

 perous manufactures? It is fortunate that, as experience 

 in other countries shows, beds which thin out may thicken 

 again, or that new beds may appear towards the west ; 

 so that, while caution and patient examination are 

 inculcated, all hope is not entirely extinguished by such 

 facts as are given above. t 



From Richardson s mill we drove over grey and 

 greenish-grey rocks for a short distance, when we came 

 again upon red rocks, which form the coast-line along 

 Salisbury Cove, and thence for a great distance west- 



* Industrial Resources of Nova Scotia, p. 241. 



t Since my return home, I have been informed by letter that a four- 

 feet seam has been discovei^ed on the New Brunswick side of the Cum 

 berland Basin, and is in course of being worked. From the disturbed 

 state of the rocks, however, I doubt its being either very horizontal or 

 continuous over a very large area. 



