242 



On the present occasion we proceed to condense this description, 

 seeing that the subject is replete with geological interest, and that it 

 is apparently the first Asphaltum vein which has been described or 

 even discovered on the North American continent. 



The examination of the Hillsborough mine was made in conjunc- 

 tion with Professor James Robb, of Fredericton College, N. B., in 

 May, 1851, and a joint report was made by us on that occasion.* 



It was at once apparent that the mineral substance of the Hills- 

 borough or Albert mine occurs at a very high angle, which varied 

 from nearly perpendicular to within 10 to 20 degrees of verticality. 

 Its position is in the midst of a formation which consists of highly bitu- 

 minous calcareous or marley shale, in which several species of ganoid 

 fossil fishes, of the genus Palseoniscus, abound. None of the usual 

 varieties of coal vegetation were observed by lis, but it was stated that 

 a very few obscure traces had been noticed by others. 



In the progress of the geological investigation, I was struck with 

 the resemblance of this deposit to those of the Asphaltum or Chapa- 

 pote in the Island of Cuba, described in Vol. VI. of the Transactions 

 of this Society, and its general conformity to the configuration shown 

 in the diagrams there given from admeasurements made on the spot. 



The opposite sides or walls of the Hillsborough vein are very dis- 

 similar at certain points, yet, at intervals, for short distances, they 

 are parallel and conformable. 



It is obvious that the two sides cannot be parallel, since the vein, 

 like those near Havana, is in form of a wedge, whose thinnest edge 

 is upwards, and enlarging from about a foot at the outcrop to 13 or 

 14 feet, at some 40 or 50 feet depth below the surface. 



It has neither a true roof nor floor. It has no overlying nor under- 

 lying^re clay. It exhibits no coal plants, nor organic traces, as in 

 coal seams. It possesses no conformable lamination, horizontally or 

 longitudinally, as in coal and coal seams. Instead of this, the di- 

 visional planes are arranged transversely ; i. e. at right angles to 

 the sides of the vein, as we observed was the case in the Chapapote 

 veins of Cuba. 



The conclusion which we could not fail to arrive at from the con- 

 sideration of these phenomena, was that the New Brunswick vein of 

 Asphalte occupies a line of dislocation, an anticlinal axis in fact, 

 which tilted off" the bordering strata, in opposite directions to either 

 side, for a considerable area ; the amount of inclination being reduced 



* Joint Geological Report. 



