218 Coal in Canada. 



There may have been a land flora and the accumulation of coal 

 at an earlier period than we have elsewhere ascertained these 

 phenomena to exist. Unfortunately however no indication of this 

 exists except the discovery, by Sir W. E. Logan, of a bed of coal 

 one inch thick, in the Devonian rocks of Gaspe, associated with 

 a few vegetable fossils. This is in itself a rare and interesting geo- 

 logical fact, and the beds in which it occurs are those which are 

 next below the true carboniferous series. 



Secondly, the coal measures approach Canada somewhat 

 closely both on the East and West. In the peninsulas of Canada 

 West, and of Gaspe, we have the Devonian series, the next below 

 the carboniferous. To these succeed respectively the coal-fields of 

 Michigan and New Brunswick, which on the West and East occur 

 just beyond the limits of Canada. In those parts of the province 

 which thus approach nearest to the carboniferous system, it is 

 barely possible that outliers of these carboniferous districts, as 

 yet unobserved, may extend within our limits. The Bowmanville 

 locality is however too far distant from the Western coal-fields to 

 give any likelihood to such a view in this case. 



Again it sometimes occurs that locally certain members of the 

 geological series are wanting, and the coal-measures may thus 

 rest directly on beds far older than themselves. For instance at 

 Bowmanville a small and hitherto unobserved independent coal- 

 field, may rest unconformably on the Utica slates. But then in 

 such cases the coal never occurs alone, but in company with shales 

 and sandstones containing fossil plants, and usually also with 

 limestones containing fossils quite distinct from those of the under- 

 lying Silurian and Devonian rocks. Coal sometimes even occurs 

 on unstratified or altered rocks, as granite or gneiss ; but in those 

 cases it still has its characteristic accompaniments, and it must be 

 observed that such rocks are of all geological ages, many granites 

 being even newer than the true coal formation. A curious mis- 

 application of this fact has we observe been made by one of our 

 contemporaries; but we have determined not to attempt any ex- 

 posure of the multitudinous errors that are showered upon the 

 public on every side from the press, as these would already in the 

 Bowmanville case, require nearly a whole volume of the Naturalist 

 for their full illustration and explanation. If in the Bowmanville 

 case any evidence of the characteristic accompaniments of coal 

 had been adduced, all geologists would at once have admitted the 

 credibility of the statement, without any cavil as to its resting on 



