94 HALIBURTON — ON EXPLORATIONS IN PICTOU COAL FIELD- 



Known, on the East River colliery. Xo. 5, on an adjoin- 

 ing property, purcliased from Messrs. Beal and How, and 

 now belonging to the jMontreal and Pictou Coal Company. 

 These explorations, therefore, are the most extensive that have 

 hitherto been condnctcd in that county, and though undertaken 

 for the practical purpose of discovering and developing coal 

 mines, have incidentally thrown some light on the Pictou coal 

 tield, which may be interesting to geologists and to the public. 

 I shall lirst select those explorations on the northern side of the 

 basin, on the East Eiver and Montreal and Pictou properties, as 

 they are in the immediate vicinity of New Glasgow, and in a 

 district which had been previously fully described and some- 

 what misunderstood. 



Dr. Dawson, whose investigations have thrown so much light 

 on the structure and formation of coal, and whose geological 

 labours have reflected so much credit on his native province, 

 has been for, many years almost the only authority on the Pictou 

 coal field, and his inferences were based on the limited infor- 

 mation that was derived from the works of the General Mining 

 Association, which were confined to the southern crop of the 

 basin. Mr. Pichard Smith, a former superintendent of that 

 colliery, suspected, as I am informed, that there was a coal basin 

 between New Glasgow and the Albion Mines pits, but this 

 impression seemed to have been lost sight of, and the conclusion 

 was, many years ago, somewhat hastily arrived at, that New 

 Glasgow was situated on the southern rise of the basin, and that 

 the coal which was supposed to be at an immense depth, was 

 thrown down by a great down throw fault ; the large seams not 

 re-appearing to the northward. It was evidently assumed that 

 the town of Pictou was situated on the northern rise of the 

 basin, which would make it from ten to fifteen miles in breadth. 

 Dr. Dawson, in his examination before the Mines' Committee of 

 the House of Assembly, states as follows : — 



" The outcrop of this bed is four miles in length. It is 

 broken by a fault at New GlasgoAv where it falls doitm several 

 thousand feet. It has not been fomid again in the county of 

 Pictou. The other outcrop is about a mile to the S. E. of the 

 mines. 



