32 Reviews — Mining of Thin Coal Seams, E. Canada. 



in the hands of tlie Government of the Province. This happy result 

 came about in a rather curious manner. In 1784, when Cape Breton 

 was made a separate province, the Privy Council reserved to the 

 Crown all the coal and other valuable minerals, and had earlier 

 forbidden the raining of coal, so that the unfortunate colonists had 

 the mortification of seeing the coal which fell from the cliffs on to 

 the shore washed out to sea. The Crown did not make a wise use of 

 the Royal prerogative, but leased the mines to the Duke of York, .who 

 happened to be deeply in debt at the time. The lease was eventually 

 broken in 1857 after considerable agitation. The fortunate result 

 has been that the mining rights did not fall into private hands. 



The estimated amount of the coal reserve of I^ova Scotia is less 

 than 1 per cent of the total reserve for Canada, but, because of 

 the excellent quality of the deposits, their remoteness from other 

 coal-fields, and their accessibility, Mr. Gray considers Nova Scotia 

 will remain the chief coal-producing province of the Dominion for a 

 long time. At present its output is nearly 60 per cent of that of 

 the whole of Canada. One of the great difficulties in working the 

 mines is caused by the ever-present gas, and in spite of all the 

 precautions taken there have been several bad explosions resulting 

 in loss of life. 



Copious statistics of the various mines are given, and the excellent 

 index provided renders reference to the report easy. 



VI. — The Mining of Thin Coal Seams as applied to the Eastern 

 Coal-fields of Canada. By J. P. Kellock Brown, pp. viii 

 and 135, with figures and a coloured map. Department of 

 Mines, Ottawa, 1917. 



IT is well known that certain parts of the coal-fields of the eastern 

 provinces of Canada contain a large number of thin seams of 

 coal in addition to the thick ones which are more generally worked. 

 The Government authorities have very wisely undertaken the con- 

 sideration of how these may best be turned to account. The chief 

 problem to be solved is to determine whether it is most advisable in 

 the public interest to work all seams together, or to preserve either 

 the thicker or the thinner seams with a view to keeping up the 

 supply as long as possible. In this memoir the line of demarcation 

 between a thick and a thin seam is taken at 3 feet : the lower 

 limit of possible working under conditions likely to obtain in the 

 immediate future is taken as 12 inches, in agreement with the 

 views of the British Coal Commission. After a careful survey of 

 the whole situation it is recommended that the thin seams should be 

 worked concuiTently with the thicker ones, in order to extend as far 

 as possible the life of the latter, and that measures should also be taken 

 to secure co-ordination in colliery-working generally, so as to reduce 

 working costs and to prevent wasteful competition. A very complete 

 account is given of the position and thicknesses of all known seams, 

 together with their depth from the surface. Fi'om this it appears 

 that by far the richest area is in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, where 

 some of the seams run up to nearly 40 feet. Over the rest of the 



