..SOUTHERN NEW BRUNSWICK. 17 ti 



from Penobsquis station. They are here reported to contain a vein of 

 albertite. Another deposit in Mechanic settlement is very interesting, 

 and occurs on what is known as the Haley farm. Here Lower Car- 

 boniferous sediments appear in a depression among the green chloritic 

 slates of the pre-Cambrian series. These slates dip 1ST. 65° W. < 50°, and 

 disclose a narrow trough-like basin ninety paces in width, filled in with 

 greenish-grey conglomerates, the pebbles of the old slates and other 

 metamorpbic rocks being cemented together with a fine dark paste, full 

 of particles of albertite, and intersected by very fine seams of the same. ... ... in 



An irregular vein of albertite occurs in a fissure among these conglome- older rocks, 

 rates, no shales being visible, but the deposit is very limited, and may 

 be styled a local pocket rather than a regular vein. A crack in the 

 older slates, however, which underlie the bituminous beds, has become 

 filled with albertite, which at first sight almost looks as if it had been 

 injected from below along a line of fault, but it has probably been 

 filled by infiltration ; and on Martin's farm, on the north side of the 

 road, the granitoid rocks which there underlie the Lower Carboniferous, 

 disclose the same peculiarity, being impregnated to the depth of an 

 eighth of an inch with bitumen, while the numerous joints which inter- 

 sect the rock are also filled with particles of albertite. As the bitumi- 

 nous matter has been shown, in former reports, to belong to the Low T er 

 Carboniferous strata, we must, of necessity, infer that the albertite or 

 bituminous matter in the granitoid and slaty rocks has been derived 

 from the overlying bituminous shales and conglomerates. Economic- 

 ally speaking, this deposit is of no value. 



In the report of 1876-77, the distribution of the Albert shales in Exploration 

 western Albert was given, and their similarity to the albertite- 

 producing beds of the Albert Mines led to the formation of a company 

 in 1876 for the purpose of proving this area by boring with the 

 diamond drill. A number of holes were put down about Elgin and in 

 Mapleton, but no traces of albertite were found. Although the charac- 

 ter of the beds is identical with those of the Albert Mines, both in 

 lithological aspect and in the presence of bitumen, yet the physical 

 features of the two areas are very different. No strongly marked 

 anticlinals occur in the beds in the western part of the county, like 

 that seen at the Albert Mines, nor does the general character of the 

 formation tend to warrant the expenditure of any considerable sum of 

 money in underground exploration. From our examinations of the 

 whole area occupied by these shales, we can only say that we consider 

 the occurrence of albertite at the Albert Mines due almost entirely to 

 peculiar local conditions that, so far as we have seen, do not exist else, 

 where to the same extent. The explorations carried on at Beliveau 

 and Taylorville during the past four years tend to confirm this opinion. 



