LOWER CARBONIFEROUS OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 237 



gas, but does not melt like asphalt. In a close tube, however, it can 

 be melted with some intumescence. In the above characters, witli 

 the exception of the colour of the powder, it agrees more nearly with 

 tlie finer varieties oi Jet or Pitch-Coal^ than with any other substance. 

 Vor this reason I made comparative trials of its composition and that 

 of specimens of jet from Whitby, with the following results: — 



Albert Mineral. Whitby Jet. 



Water .... -4 1-5 



Volatile combustible matter . 57-2 57-1 



Coke 42-4 41-4 



1000 100-0 



Ash in coke . . . - -27 40 



These results indicate a remarkable similarity in the proportion of 

 volatile and fixed combustible matter; an ultimate analysis might, 

 however, establish important differences of detail. 



If we compare the '^ Alberiite," as it has been named by persons 

 desirous of not committing themselves, with the substances most nearly 

 allied to it, we can scarcely avoid an-iving at the following conclu- 

 sions : — In its behaviour in the fire, chemical composition, and electrical 

 properties, the substance is nearly allied to jet, from which, however, 

 it differs in its extreme brittleness, its greater uniformity of texture, 

 and more perfect lustre and fracture, and also in its black streak : a 

 character which also separates it from ordinary bituminous coal and 

 all the varieties of asphaltum. Its nearest analogue in this last 

 particular is Lesmahagow cannel. Its lustre and fracture remarkably 

 assimilate it to the finer varieties of asphalt, but its streak, mode of 

 combustion, and chemical composition, effectually separate it from 

 them. On the whole, the above considerations, in connexion Avith a 

 number of experiments made by Jackson, Hayes, and others, and 

 published in the Reports on the mineral, place the substance at the 

 head of the Pitch Coals or Jets, as the purest variety of that species 

 of bituminous coal. It has, however, some claims to be viewed as a 

 distinct mineral species, intermediate between coals and as))halts ; and 

 I suspect that its chemical composition may approacli to that of 

 Asphaltene, the coaly ingredient of the Asphalts. 



Under the microscope, I have not been able to detect any organic 

 structure, though I have found in some slices cells filled with yellow 

 resinous matter, similar to those that occur in canncl-coal. I\Ir Bacon 

 of lioston, however, states (in Jackson's Report), that he has found 

 traces of cellular tissue ; but Professor Quekett of London, after 

 examining many specimens, considers it destitute of organic structure. 



