108 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 9, 



More recently the mineral deposit became a subject of litigation, 

 and as the disputed right depended, or was supposed to depend, in 

 part on its nature and geological age, scientific iuTestigations were 

 made at the instance of the parties interested. The scientific testi- 

 mony was of a remarkably conflicting character. Dr. Jackson, of 

 Boston*, Dr. Percival, Dr. Hayes, and other eminent geologists and 

 chemists maintamed that the substance is a "true coal," and that it 

 occurs in the "true coal-formation." The late Mr. R. C. Taylor, 

 F.G.S.f, the well-known author of the 'Statistics of Coal,' Dr. 

 Robb, of Frederickton, and others, on the contrary, held that the 

 substance is "asphalt or a variety of asphalt," and that it is a true 

 vein occupying a Ime of dislocation. Having taken no part in the 

 litigation of the question, and having recently enjoyed an opportunity 

 of examining this somewhat anomalous deposit, I propose in the fol- 

 lowing paper to state the results at which I have arrived in reference 

 to its- nature and geological age. 



1. Geological position. — According to Dr. Jackson, this is in the 

 Coal-formation. Mr. Taylor inclines to the view that it is in the Old 

 Red Sandstone ; and Dr. Percival, while regarding the deposit as 

 belonging to the Carboniferous system, admits that it underlies the 

 red sandstone, gypsum, &c. of the -vdcinity, which are Lower Carbo- 

 niferous. These differences of opinion are, I think, satisfactorily ac- 

 counted for by what I believe to be the true place of the deposit, 

 namely in the lower part of the Lower Carboniferous seiies, and on 

 the geological horizon of a singular band of pseudo- coal-measures, 

 which occurs in several places in Nova Scotia, below the great Lower 

 Carboniferous marine limestones, and marks the daviai of those pecu- 

 liar estuary and swamp conditions which prevailed so extensively in 

 the middle and later portions of the Coal period. 



In Nova Scotia, this member of the Carboniferous system usually 

 consists of dark-coloured argillaceous, bituminous, and calcareous 

 shales, with sandstones, and occasionally thin layers of coal. These 

 beds contain a few coal-plants, especially Lepidodendron, and in some 

 places abundance of scales of fishes {Holoptychius, Palceoniscus, &c.). 

 They are well seen at Lower Horton, Horton Bluff, Windsor, Noel, 

 Walton, Five Mile River, and Plaister Cove ; and, as appearing at 

 these places, have been described by the author^ and Sir C. Lyell. 

 It is somewhat singular that a comparison with this well-known 

 group of rocks has not, so far as I am aware, occurred to any of the 

 gentlemen who have written on the Albert deposit. The following 

 are the grounds on which I would refer it to this particular place. 



At the South Joggins in Nova Scotia, distant in a direct line about 

 twenty miles S.E. from the Albert Mine, occurs a well-known section 

 ofrocksof the true coal-formation, dipping to the S.S.W. Following 

 these beds in descending order, we find the lower carboniferous series, 

 consisting of red clays and sandstones with limestone and gypsum, 



* Report on the Albert Coal Mine, New York, 1851. 

 t Deposition of R. C. Taylor, &c., Philadelphia, 1851. 

 + Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vi. p. 347, and note. 



