LOWER CARI30NIFEROUS OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 



235 



Fig. 06. — Section of the 

 beds at the East end of 

 Albert Mine. 



similar to that represented in Fig. 6-1, and accompanied by a partial 

 tearing asunder of the beds. It seems evident that the beds must 

 have been in a soft state at the time when this disturbance occurred, 

 although there may have been subsequently some vertical shifting, 

 especially on the west side of this ' Jog.' 



" Beyond this flexure, the deposit contracts in width, and becomes 

 more regular, and eventually its containing walls assume a conformable 

 dip to the S. 5° E., at an angle of G9°. The appearance presented at 

 the time of my visit in the extreme end of the most advanced level, is 

 represented in Fig. 66, where it will be observed that the S.E. wall 

 still shows indications of the prevailing contortions of the beds, and of 

 the manner in which these cause the ends of 

 strata to abut against the coal. 



"At this place, an exploratory level, driven to 

 the S.E., shows a series of bituminous shales, 

 with bands of ironstone, dipping regularly to the 

 south-eastward. I could not, in any part of the 

 mine, find beds corresponding to the Stigmaria 

 underclay of ordinary coal-seams, though on the 

 S.E. side some of the beds are of a more compact 

 and purely argillaceous character than those on 

 the N. W. side or roof of the scam. The ironstone 

 bands and fish-bearing shales are, however, not 

 very dissimilar from those in some Coal measures of the ordinary Coal 

 formation. They present no indications of metamorphism or of the 

 passage of heated vapours, and all their ajjpearances show that their 

 bituminous matter has resulted from the presence of organic substances 

 at the time of their deposition. 



*' It is evident that all the above phenomena can be explained on 

 the supposition that this coaly mass occupies a fissure running along 

 an anticlinal bend of the strata ; and that, apart from the character of 

 the mineral and the containing beds, this would be the most natural 

 explanation. On the other hand, when we consider the contorted 

 condition of the beds, Indicating disturbance when in a soft state, and 

 the slickenside joints, pointing to subsequent shifts, we cannot refuse 

 to admit that a conformable bed of true coal, if subjected before and 

 after its consolidation to such movements, might present all the 

 appearances of complication and disturbance observed in this mass, 

 more especially if originally of small extent, and thinning out toward 

 the edges. On this view we shuuld have to suppose, — (1.) Disturbance 

 and contortion of the beds while soft, and, at the point in (Question, a 

 regular and somewhat abrupt arching of the beds; (2.) A faidt throwing 



