MINERALS OF THE COAL-FIELD OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 245 



4. Useful Minerals of the Carboniferous District of New Brutiswick. 



The information under this head lias been kindly communicated to 

 me by Professor Bailey, of King's College, Frederickton. 



Bituminous Coal. — Though covering so large a surface area, or 

 more than two-thirds of the entire extent of the province, the Carbon- 

 iferous or coal-bearing rocks of New Brunswick have afforded as yet 

 but little promise of large or valuable deposits of this most important 

 product. With the single exception of the beds at Grand Lake in 

 Queen's County, which are but 22 inches in thickness, no stratum of 

 bituminous coal, sufficiently large or pure to be profitably worked, has 

 yet been discovered. Nor can the prospects of future discoveries be 

 regarded as very encouraging. The following are the more important 

 facts from which this conclusion may be drawn : — 



Isi, The strata of the New Brunswick Coal-field are nowhere greatly 

 disturbed, the beds being nearly horizontal and continuous over wide 

 areas. Borings or other explorations therefore at various points 

 afford an approximately accurate idea of the whole district. Such 

 borings, undertaken at Grand Lake in 1837, affirmed the existence, at 

 the depth of about 250 feet, of a second bed of " bituminous shale and 

 coal," eight feet in thickness; but as prominence is given to the shale, 

 and the relative proportion of each not stated, the observation is of 

 little value. Similar borings have more recently been made on the 

 Cocagne River in Kent County, where the formations resemble those 

 of Grand Lake, to a depth of 410 feet. Several small seams of coal 

 were passed through, the largest of which was about 31 inches (or 

 more correctly 19 inches and 12 inches, with 12 inches of freestone 

 intervening),* but the results were not such as to justify farther 

 exploration. 



2c?, The whole formation, though of great superficial extent, has 

 apparently but slight thickness. This is evidenced in two ways: \st, 

 By the fossils of the associated beds, which, according to Professor 

 Dawson, indicate the admixture of the floras of several different 

 horizons ; and, 2(7/y, By the fact that in the Grand Lake district, as 

 shown by Mr C. R. Matthews, the rocks of the Coal measures are 

 penetrated by those of the older metamorphic formations upon which 

 they rest. With strata nearly horizontal in position, and having 

 apparently but slight thickness, the borings already made give little 

 promise of future discoveries of great value. 



To these general conclusions, however, it is but right to add, that 



* For this information I am indebted to Mr Edward Allison of St John, by whom 

 these explorations were undertaken. 



