1853.] DAWSON AND POOLE ALBION COAL. 43 



Nova Scotia. It has also white and very light ashes, and has a re- 

 markable power of continuing in a state of combustion when covered 

 with ashes, and of remaining alight until all the coaly matter is 

 burned out, almost ia the manner of peat. Its heating power is so 

 much greater in proportion to its amount of fixed carbon than that 

 of some other bituminous coals, that Prof. W. R. Johnston in his 

 Report to the American Government on the Coals of America, sug- 

 gests that it may have been produced from a different description of 

 vegetable matter. A different mode of accumulation is, however, a 

 more probable explanation. The following abstract of assays made 

 by me for the General Mining Association, shows its composition and 

 also the changes which occur in proceeding from the eastern to the 

 western part of the mine, and in different parts of the thickness of 

 the bed, or of that part of it (say 12 feet) at present worked. 





<' Moisture 



S.E. si 



(About 



of Da 



de : old workings, 

 one mile eastward 

 Ihousie Pits.) 



1-750 



25-875 



61-950 



10-425 



N.W. side: old 

 workings. 



1-550 .... 

 27-988 .... 

 60-837 .... 



9-625 .... 



DaUiousie 

 Pits. 



-800 



o 



^ Volatile combustible matter 

 1 Fixed carbon 



.. 26-325 

 66-925 



(4 



(.Ashes 



/"Moisture 



N Volatile combustible matter 

 J Fixed carbon 



.. 5-950 



0.4 



f2S 



100-000 



1-500 



24-800 



51-428 



22-272 



100-000 



1-500 .... 

 28-613 .... 

 61-087 .... 



8-800 .... 



100-000 



-900 

 .. 27-250 

 .. 61-350 



FQ 



(.Ashes 



^ Moisture 



S Volatile combustible matter 



.. 10-500 



o o 



100-000 



2-250 



22-375 



52-475 



22-900 



10-000 



1-800 

 27-075 

 59-950 

 11-175 



100-000 



KM 1 



(.Ashes 







100-000 100-000 



The excess of earthy matter in the coal of the eastern part of the 

 mine is, probably, connected with the vicinity of this part of the 

 workings to a spur or promontory of older (Upper Silurian) rocks, 

 from which detritus may have been washed down at the time of the 

 formation of the coal. 



2. The thickness of the beds of coal in the Albion measures is 

 very great, as compared with those of the Joggins and Sydney. At 

 the Joggins, Mr. Logan's section shows an aggregate thickness of 44 

 feet, distributed among 76 seams. At Sydney there are, according 

 to Mr. Brown's section, 31 seams, with an aggregate thickness of 

 37 feet. At Pictou, on the other hand, there is a thickness of 60 

 feet of coal in two great seams, beside several smaller seams. 



3. There is also a very great thickness of black argillaceous beds 

 associated with the coal, and an absence of the grey sandstones and 

 reddish shales which are so abundantly intercalated in the coal- 

 measures of Sydney and the Joggins. The following abstract of the 



