27 



Kilometres '^^^ whole equipment is electrically operated. 

 After leaving Burmis, the railway follows 

 closely the north bank of the Crowsnest river, 

 good exposures consisting of rocks of the Dakota 

 formation which overlies the coal-bearing Koote- 

 nay, being seen for some distance. The Dakota 

 is made up almost entirely of soft, crumbly, 

 dark-coloured, shaly sandstone, and sandy 

 shales often showing obscure plant impressions, 

 the prevailing tints being green, though some 

 very characteristic dark red beds are in evidence. 

 The strata in this neighbourhood are quite 

 extensively folded, and about one mile west of 

 Burmis an important fault occurs with the 

 usual easterly downthrow of several hundred 

 feet. 



Police Flat siding — At Police Flat is situated 

 one of the Leitch Collieries' plants. This point 

 is on the axis of a sharp anticline and is underlaid 

 by Dakota rocks, but about half a mile to the 

 north, where the mine is situated, erosion has 

 uncovered the underlying Kootenay beds. 

 Here five seams of coal have been proven, 

 2 ft. (-6 m.), 6 ft. (i-8 m.), 5 ft. (1-5 m.), 4 ft. 

 (i-2m.), and 10 ft. (3-04 m.), respectively, 

 in thickness. The mine is worked by pillar and 

 stall system and on account of the steep dip 

 (60°) the rooms are driven diagonally up the 

 pitch. The coal is hauled in the main gangway 

 and to the tipple by gasoline motor. The tipple 

 is of the Phillips cross-over type and is equipped 

 with shaking screens and picking tables, and 

 has a capacity of 1000 tons in two shifts. From 

 the tipple the slack coal is elevated to the 

 washing plant, of Luhrig jig type, with a capa- 

 city of 500 tons washed coal in ten hours. 

 After washing, the coal passes to bins holding 

 1000 tons and thence by electric lorries to the 

 coke ovens, loi in number; these ovens are a 

 modified bee-hive, rectangular in shape and are 

 mechanically levelled and pushed. They take 

 a charge of 10 tons of coal. 



