QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 75 B 



ao-o-lomerates and felspathic sandstones of Subdivision D. The coal in Probably bat 



C5i= ' ^ . iiiiii I on'; seam. 



Hooper Creek tunnel is found turning east, and probably bends round 

 eventually to a south-easterly strike, running to the trial shafts above 

 described, and then again doubling abruptly on itself, continues up the 

 south-west side of Eobinson Creek. This structure may be, and prob- 

 ably is, complicated by small faults, which destroy to some extent its 

 regularity ; but by supposing its existence we account readily for the 

 presence of the peculiar dark argil! ites with Unio Hubbardi near the 

 seam on both Hooper and Eobinson Creeks, the absence of the so-called 

 three-feet seam in the Wilkes tunnel, the appearance of the trap-like 

 rock on the north-east of the coal in the above quoted section (this rock 

 seeming to represent that found on the south-east side of the coal on 

 Hooper Creek), the similarity of appearance and structure in the coal 

 seam in the section and that of Hooper Creek, and other points. In 

 the diagram of the vicinity of the coal mine the probable course of 

 the seam on this supposition is indicated, with the areas occupied by 

 Subdivisions B., C. and .D. 



From the descriptions above given, it will be evident that the coal Irregularity of 



1 " seam. 



seam is in itself irregular in quality and thickness. This has arisen 

 partly no doubt from the inequality of the surface on which it has 

 been laid down, but there seems also to have been a considerable amount 

 of movement between the top of the already hard volcanic rocks of D., 

 and unconsolidated sediments of E., during the flexure of the strata; 

 which, while it may cause the seam to be ver}^ thin or altogether want- 

 ing in some places, may have rendered it extremely thick in others. 

 Such irregularity, though to a smaller degree, has been met with in the 

 now well known measures of jSTanaimo, and if it can once be shown by 

 more extended exploration that the average thickness of the seam is 

 sufficiently great, this will be of comparatively little consequence. 



I had supposed, before visiting the mine, that the coal might prove Character and 



- ■ ii. • i • i-i , ii i »ii -j. conditions of 



to be an inspissated bituminous deposit like the well known Albertite deposit of the 

 of New Brunswick, but which had been more thoroughly metamor- 

 phosed. This is not the case, however, and an origin similar to that of 

 ordinary coals must be attributed to it, though it is probable that the 

 carbonaceous material has, at the time of its deposition, assumed that 

 pulpy state which has elsewhere resulted in the production of cannel or 

 anthracite coals. It will be observed, however, that with the excejDtion 

 of the beds immediately surrounding the coal seam, the fossils found 

 are marine, and do not indicate the recurrence at different stratigraphi- 

 cal horizons of the terrestrial conditions which, in the Carboniferous coal 

 formation, has resulted in the accumulation of many superposed coal 

 beds. Many fragments of wood converted to coal occur in the higher 

 members of the formation, but these have been drifted from the shore 



