LOWER CARBONIFEROUS OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 239 



Some countenance is given to this view by the existence of ijctroleum 

 springs at present in the continuation of the same deposit, and by tlic 

 presence of minute fissures filled with the mineral, which might, 

 however, be explained on the supposition of pressure exerted on a 

 soft or semifluid bed. 



The hypothesis of formation from woody matter, after the manner 

 of coal, is also accompanied with serious difficulties. The composition 

 of jet and of recent bituminous coal found in peat-bogs, prove the 

 possibility of this mode of formation ; and this is certainly the most 

 natural way of accounting for the production of the coaly and bitu- 

 minous matter of the containing beds; but large and pure beds of 

 coal arc usually accompanied by evidences of growth in situ, and 

 accumulations of drift-trunks are usually loaded with earthy matter, 

 while none of these conditions exist in the deposit in question. The 

 want of the first is, however, perfectly consistent with the long and 

 perfect decomposition implied in this view, as well as in the homo- 

 geneity of the mass, and the abundance of bitumen in the containing 

 shales ; and in a deposit containing so little evidence of strong currents 

 or violent changes, it may not be unreasonable to suppose that drift 

 vegetable matter may have accumulated during long periods in clear 

 water. In connexion with this it is worthy of remark, that the com- 

 parative absence of iron pyrites, in connexion with the jiresence of 

 large quantities of carbonate of iron in the shales, proves'^' that these 

 beds were deposited in fresh and very pure water, if it be admitted 

 that their bitumen resulted from the decomposition of organic matter. 

 Neither is the great purity of the mineral an evidence against its 

 accumulation in the manner of ordinary coal, since varieties of coal 

 almost equally pure have long been known. -J- On this view, tlicn, 

 which is joerhaps the most probable of the three, the Albert deposit is 

 a fresh- water formation of a very peculiar character, belonging to the 

 Lower Carboniferous period, and very singularly distorted by mechanical 

 disturbances. 



The above was the impression on my mind in 1855 as to the origin 

 of the Albertitc. Now, in 18G7, I confess that it is somewhat modi- 

 fied. The subsequent explorations of the deposit have given to it 

 more unmistakably the aspect of a vein or fissure. The remarkable 

 veins of altered asphalt which I have seen in the rocks of the Quebec 

 group at Point Leir, have afforded a parallel case more distinct in 

 its character. All the more recent explorers who have visited the 



* Sec jiapcr by tlic writer on the " Colouring Matter of Red Sandstones," in Pro- 

 ceedings of Geological Society, 

 t See Assays in Taylor's Statistics of Coal. 



