GEOLOGICAL AREAS OF CANADA. 115 



of their limits more especially, by a series of faults, by which their 

 relative positions are somewhat disturbed. The base of the Middle 

 Division is a coarse red conglomerate, which outcrops immediately 

 north of one of these lines of fault, and runs in a general easterly 

 direction through New Glasgow, between the inlets or harbours of 

 Pictou and Merrigomish. This dips generally towards the north, in 

 which direction it is followed by the more typical coal strata (although 

 these present little more than indications of workable coal seams), 

 with strata of the Upper Division outcropping beyond them and so 

 passing under the straits. South of the New Glasgow conglomerate 

 and fault — the outcrop of the conglomerate being due to the latter — 

 other beds of the Middle or Productive Division occur ; and it is in 

 these that the great woi-kable coal seams of the Pictou area are situ- 

 ated. They are traversed by several faults running roughly east and 

 west, or parallel with the northern or New Glasgow fault ; and they 

 ai-e also partially distui^bed by minor faultings, running more or less 

 transversely to the latter. The coal seams lie principally in two 

 main synclinals between the north and the extreme south fault — a 

 breadth or distance of from three to four miles intervening between 

 these. Two of the seams are of remarkable thickness. These are 

 exposed principally on and near the East River ia the district of the 

 Albion and Acadia mines, a few miles south-east of Pioton Harbour. 

 One seam, known as the " Main Coal Seam," has an average thick- 

 ness of about 36 feet; and a second seam, the "Deep" or "Cage- 

 Pit" seam, lying 150 feet vertically beneath the main seam, is about 

 23 feet in thickness. These seams do not consist throughout of coal 

 of uniform quality, but include subordinate layei'S of coarse coal and 

 slaty coal, and also some thin seams of ii'onstone ; the whole, how- 

 ever, being taken out together, and thus worked as a single bed. At 

 the Albion mines the dip of the main seam is N.E., at an angle of 

 18°-23°, and the thickness varies from 36 ft. 10 in. to 28 ft. 3 in. 

 Several seams have been discovered below the Deep or Cage-Pit 

 seam, varying in thickness from 3 feet to about 1 2 feet ; and a 

 3|- feet seam occurs also above the Main seam. Other seams have 

 likewise been recognized by outcrops at Eraser's Mountain, and on 

 Middle River, &c., within the present area. One of the lower seamsj 

 lying at a vertical depth of 580 feet below the Deep seam, consists 

 of a layer or "bench" of ordinary bituminous coal, about 3 feet in 

 thickness, resting on a layer of inflammable substance, somewhat 



