NOTES ON MINERAL FUELS OF CANADA. ELLS. 63 



Other important coal deposits in this island are in the west- 

 ern part, and are found i'n the Richmond and Inverness basins. 

 In recent vears, owing to railway construction, these areas have 

 been rendered accessible, and large quantities are now regularly 

 shipped both by land a'nd water. 



O'n the mainland of Nova Scotia, the most important coal 

 field at present is in Pictou County, and though this field is 

 much faulted in places, it has been worked for a century, and. is 

 noted for the immense thickness of the coal beds contained, 

 w T hieh in one case reaches nearly or quite forty feet. In the 

 western part of the provi'nce, in Cumberland County, the 

 Springhill basin inland, and the Joggins basin on an arm of the 

 Bay of Fundy, are lara'e and important factors as regards a coal 

 supply, and though the seams worked at these two places have 

 as yet never been directly connected, the extension of the beds 

 of the Joggins along the northern limit of the Carboniferous 

 basin has been traced for many miles, and a number of collieries 

 have been located along their outcrop. These have been pro- 

 ducers of coal in considerable amounts for a number of years. 



The Carboniferous basin of New Brunswick is extensive, 

 comprising more than 10,000 square miles. The formation, 

 however, is comparatively thin, and the coal-bearing rocks are 

 regarded as of Millstone-writ age, and as beneath the Productive 

 measures of Nova Scotia, the thick beds of that province not 

 appearing i'a this direction. The workable seams in New 

 Brunswick rarely exceed twenty inches in thickness, so that the 

 output can never equal that of the adjacent province, but some 

 thousands of tons are mined yearly and find a ready market. In 

 the Upper Carboniferous formation, also, several small seams 

 are found, but these are not sufficiently large to be mined. 



In Quebec seams of coal are almost entirely absent,, the only 

 deposit of the kind occurring in Devonian slates, in a small 

 layer two to four inches thick, o'n the shore of Gaspe Basin, and 

 of no economic value. The oil-fields of this district, though 



