THE CARBONIFEROUS DISTRICT OK PICTOU. 339 



About five feet above the M'Gregor Seam there is a smaller seam, 

 three feet three inches thick, and of good quality, which may perhaps 

 in future be worked in connexion with the other. The other seams 

 between the M'Gregor and Deep Seams, known as the " Purves Seam " 

 and "Third Seam," are said to be each four feet in thickness, but are 

 not worked. 



Under the M'Gregor bed, as shown on the general section above, 

 lies a very curious bed, known as the " stellar " or " oil " coal. It 

 is five feet in thickness, having, according to Mr Hoyt, the following 

 section : — 



Ft. in. 



Bituminous coal ..... 1 4 



Stellar oil coal . . . . . 1 10 



Bituminous shale . . . . . 1 10 



5 



The material known as stellar coal is, as I have maintained in 

 previous publications, of the nature of an earthy bitumen ; and geolo- 

 gically is to be regarded as an underclay or fossil soil, extremely rich 

 in bituminous matter, derived from decayed and comminuted vegetable 

 substances. It is, in short, a fossil swamp-muck or mud, which, as I 

 have elsewhere pointed out,* is the character of the earthy bitumens 

 and highly bituminous shales of the Coal formation generally. Its value 

 depends on the high percentage of illuminating gas and of mineral oil 

 which it yields on distillation ; and it is likely, on this account, to form 

 an important portion of the produce of this coal area. According to 

 the results of different trials, it is stated to yield from 50 to 126 

 gallons of oil per ton, the larger amount being apparently the yield of 

 the pure " stellar coal," so named from its scintillatoiy appearance in 

 burning. According to an analysis by Professor How of Windsor, 

 this gives, — 



Volatile matter .... 66-33 



Fixed carbon .... 25'23 



Ash 8-21 



Moisture ..... -23 



100-00 



The sample to which the above analysis refers gave of crude oil 

 120 gallons per ton. 

 The immense amount of petroleum obtained from ^vells in Canada 



* Paper on Conditions of Accumulation of Coal, " Journ. of Gool. Soc" 



