418 THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 



which can represent the Sydney main coal and the Indian Cove seam, 

 must be the Tracey and Spencer beds, or beds associated with them, 

 and not yet well known.* In this case the whole of the upper beds at 

 Cow Bay and Glace Bay beds must actually overlie the Cranberry 

 Head seam at Sydney, which may be about the horizon of the Phelan 

 bed. The only supposition which would enable us to arrive at any 

 other conclusion is, that the 2000 feet of thickness between the six- 

 feet bed and Tracey bed represent the Millstone-grit of Mr Brown ; 

 but as that careful observer mentions no beds of coal under the Mill- 

 stone-grit, and states that a continuous section of 5400 feet of Coal 

 measures exists on the north side of Boulardarie Island, this is scarcely 

 possible. 



In this view of the case, then, the total thickness of Coal measures 

 from the Millstone-grit to the newest beds between Glace Bay and 

 Lingan cannot be less than 4500 to 5000 feet, and may be more ; and 

 it is probable that several important coals not yet known exist in the 

 lower part of these measures. 



In comparison with the Joggins section, it would appear that we 

 have in these Coal measures of Cape Breton a complete equivalent of 

 Divisions 3 and 4 of the former section, with a greater aggregate 

 thickness of coal ; and if we make allowance for the probability that 

 many of the smaller beds in Cape Breton have not been noticed by 

 explorers, probably quite as many beds of coal. 



It is a matter of some practical importance that the question raised 

 by the discrepancy of the views of Mr Brown and Mr Lesley above 

 stated should be definitely settled by the actual tracing of some of the 

 beds above refen'cd to into connexion with the Sydney area. If Mr 

 Brown's view should prove correct, the available coal of the district 

 will be double that represented by Lesley, and other and very valuable 

 discoveries may be anticipated in the country between Mire Bay and 

 Sydney Harbour. 



From the Report of the Commissioner of Mines for 1866, it appears 

 that there are fourteen distinct mining establishments now operating 

 in the Coal-field of Eastern Cape Breton, and producing an aggregate of 

 more than 400,000 tons of coal annually, or nearly two-thirds of the 

 whole quantity raised in the province of Nova Scotia, so that this is 

 now the most important coal-mining district in the Acadian provinces. 



Some of the coals of this district are of remarkable purity, in so far 



* Mr Mosely, in a letter to the author, mentions some strong reasons for believing 

 that the Tracey bed is the equivalent of Mr Brown's third seam, or Indian Cove seam at 

 Sydney, and that a bed seen at Black Brook, head of Cow Bay, is the Sydney main seam, 

 being at the same vertical distance above the Tracey that the Sydney main is above 

 the Indian Cove seam. 



