GEOLOGICAL AREAS OF CANADA. 113 



crystalline rocks, probably of Pre-Silurian age, with slates, shales, 

 sandstones, and quartzites, dipping at high angles on its southern 

 flanks. These latter formations are regarded as altered Silurian 

 strata. In the township of LondondeiTy (Colchester county), more 

 especially, they are traversed by veins of brown and red iron ore and 

 ankerite.* One of these is remarkable for its continuity over a length 

 of several miles. It is filled principally with ankerite, but carries 

 large quantities of fibrous and botryoidal brown iron ore in some 

 places, and micaceous red ore in others. The ankerite averages in 

 metallic iron 11|%, the brown ore 56%, and the red ore nearly 69%, 

 as deduced from a series of analyses by the writer. These ores, moi-e- 

 over, contain very little rock matter, and they are pi-actically free 

 from titanium ; whilst sulphur and phosphorus are present in them 

 in traces only. 



4. The Cumberland Area. — This is one of the leading (^Carboniferous 

 districts of the Province. It occupies in the County of Cumberland 

 a large extent of count>y between the Cobequid Mountain Range on 

 the south, and the Straits of Northumberland on the noith. West- 

 ward it runs into the Carboniferous area of ISTew Brunswick ; and in 

 the east it merges into the Pictou area. Its strata consist of the 

 Lower and Middle (or Productive) Carboniferous "divisions. The 

 latter hold numerous seams of coal, but most of these are of slight 

 thickness. Workable seams occur, however, within the area, more 

 especially in the Springhill coal basin, near the slopes of the Cobequid 

 Ilange. The strata here dip northwards, oi' away from the mountain 

 flanks ; but in the central and northern, or north-western, portion of 

 the area, they dip towards the south, thus forming a more or less 

 I'egular trough or basin. On a portion of the northern edge of this 

 trough (the strata dipping neai'ly S.S.W.), the celebrated " South 

 Joggins section " occurs. This is exposed along the eastern shore of 

 Cumberland Basin, a continuation of Chegnecto Bay. It exhibits a 

 continuous series of Lower and Middle Carboniferous beds, dipping 

 S. 25° W.,at an average angle of 19°, throughout a thickness of 14,500 

 feet, and containing seventy-six seams of coal, nearly all of which rest 

 upon stigmaria under-clays. These coal seams for the greater part, 

 however, average, individually, only a few inches in. thickness ; but 

 two are of workable dimensions. One of these is the " Joggin's Main 

 Seam," consisting, really, of two seams separated by a thin layer of 



'■ See Dawson's Acadian Geology. Also a detailed notice, ■with, working plan, by Mr. Selwyn, 

 Director of the Geol. Survey, in the Report for 1S72. 



