GILPIN PICTOU COAL FIELD. 89 



Art. VII. — The Southern Synclinal of the Pictou Coal 

 Field. By Edwin Gilpin, M. A., F. G. S., &c, &c. 



I purpose this evening to draw your attention to a hitherto 

 neglected part of this Coal field, and to add to the arguments 

 already advanced, in favour of the extension of the Albion group 

 across the eastern part of the district, in my papers on the Pictou 

 Coal Field, and the grouping of its seams, read before the Newcas- 

 tle (England) Institute of Mining Engineers, and before you. 

 The investigations of the structure of the Pictou Coal field during 

 the last few years have not been of importance ; but I hope to show 

 from the various available sources of information, that there is a 

 strong probability that the portion now to be described, contains 

 valuable deposits of coal. 



It is to be greatly regretted that much of the prospecting done dur- 

 ing the early history of this Coal field was entrusted to men little 

 qualified for the task. Borings and trial pits were put down without 

 the slightest regard to the general structure of the field, and in one 

 or two instances based on wonderful ideas of the uselessness of 

 searching for coal seams under conglomerates. These trial open- 

 ings were seldom connected by surveys, and when records were 

 kept, they generally gave merely so many feet of sandstones and 

 shales as having been penetrated. The consequence of this is, that 

 in spite of the large sums of money spent in explorations, there are 

 many gaps left, of which little is positively known, and the infor- 

 mation gathered was in some cases erroneously considered as indi- 

 cating the absence of coal. 



The researches of Sir W. Logan, while Director of the Canadian 

 Geological Survey, have led to the generally received conclusion 

 that the productive strata of the Pictou Coal field are bounded by 

 four great faults, bringing up lower measures on all sides. This 

 eminent field geologist has also determined the positions of various 

 smaller dislocations affecting the different undulations, and repeating 

 the crops of the lower seams. 



Note.— Reference to Sn W. Logan's map of the Pictou Coal Field -will show the 

 position of the seams and faults referred to in this paper. 



