74 Coal Discoveries in Canada. 



a primordial fatma, equivalent to Barrande's " Etage C," and to the 

 English Liagula flags, in the slates of the vicinity of St. John, New 

 Brunswick. Mr. Billings has recently examined a suite of these 

 fossils, and perfectly agrees with Mr. Hartt, as to their age, which in 

 his opinion will place them below the Potsdam Sandstone, and on the 

 horizon of Salter's Menevian, and will bring for the first time into 

 their true geological position the older slate series of Nova Scotia, 

 Newfoundland, and New England. Mr. Hartt hopes soon to publish 

 descriptions of these fossils, including no less than five species of 

 Paradoxides, and seven of Conocephalites, 



These and other important new facts, I shall endeavour to apply 

 to the elucidation of the geology of the Eastern part of British 

 America, in the new edition of my "Acadian Geology," now preparing 

 for the press. 



m. — Coal of Pictou, Nova Scotia. 



niHE coal-field above alluded to, now proposed to be worked, is 

 I called the Bear Creek Mine, and is considered by Dr. Dawson 

 and Mr. Eobb to be a continuation of the same coal seams as those 

 opened out in the adjacent district, and known as the Albion and 

 Acadian mines. The Pictou coal-field presents peculiar and excep- 

 tional characters, as well as local complexities of structure, which 

 Mr. Eobb considers to be due, first, " to the existence of folds or 

 flexures in the older rocks previous to the deposition of the Coal- 

 measures ; causing irregularities of surface, which by determining 

 the direction and intensity of currents, woiild produce a great diver- 

 sity in the thickness and quality of the beds. And secondly, to the 

 continuance of the same elevatory forces which have originated the 

 folds, subsequently to the filling up of the troughs ; and producing in 

 the Coal-measures themselves a series of anticlinal and synclinal 

 folds, with dips varying in direction according to the original trend 

 of the rocks ; and in amount according to the sharpness of the folds." 

 The Bear Creek mine comprises about 1080 acres, and has been 

 found to contain four coal seams, the thickest being 19 feet, these 

 beds, according to Mr. Eobb, being identical with the Deep, Main, 

 and McGregor seams of the Albion mines. The lowest seam or 

 Frazer oil coal of those mines, yielding on distillation 200 gallons 

 of crude oil per ton, has not yet been discovered at Bear Creek, but 

 there is scarcely any doubt that it exists there. The aggregate amount 

 of coal contained in the four seams discovered is estimated at 24 

 million tons, allowing for every deduction. 



rV. — On the Discovert of Fossil Human Eemains in the Lehm 

 OF THE Valley of the Ehine at Egtjisheim, nbak Colmar. By 

 M. Faudel. 



THE Lehm in which these human bones were found occupies the 

 same stratigraphical position as the Lehm of Alsace, forming 

 the upper part of the " Diluvial Beds." It is a marly deposit, of a 



