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32X

GILPIN — riCTOU COAL FIELD.

IArt. VII. — The Southern Synclinal of the Pictou Coal
Field. By Edwin Gilpin, M. A., F. G. S., &c., &c.

I PURPOSE this evening to draw your attention to a hitherto
Ineglected part of this Coal field, and to add to the arguments
lalready advanced, in favour of the extension of the Albion group
jacross the eastern part of the district, in my papers on the Pictou
ICoal Field, and the grouping of its seams, read before the Newcas-
Itle (England) Institute of Mining Engineers, and before you.
[The investigations of the structure of the Pictou Coal field during
[the last few years have not been of importance ; but I hope to show
[from the various available sources of information, that there is a
[strong probability that the portion now to be described, contains
■valuable deposits of coal.

It is to be greatly regretted that much ^ f the prospecting done dur-
[ing the early history of this Coal field was entrusted to men little
[qualified for the task. Borings and trial pits were put down without
[the slightest regard to the general structure of the field, and in one
[or two instances based on wonderful ideas of the uselessness of
Isearching for coal seams under conglomerates. These trial open-
lings were seldom connected by surveys, and when records were
[kept, they generally gave merely so many feet of sandstones and
[shales as having been penetrated. The consequence of this is, that
[in spite of the large sums of money spent in explorations, there are
Imany gaps left, of which little is positively known, and the infor-
Imation gathered was in some cases erroneously considered as indi-
(cating the absence of coal.

The researches of Sir W. Logan, while Director of the Canadian
[Geological Survey, have led to the generally received conclusion
[that the productive strata of the Pictou Coal field are bounded by
[four great faults, bringing up lower measures on all sides. This
[eminent field geologist has also determined the positions of various
[smaller dislocations affecting the different undulations, and repeating
[the crops of the lower seams.

NoTB — Reference to Sii W. Logan's map of the Pictou Coal FisM will Bhow the
IpositioQ of the seams and iiiults referred to in this paper.

^'^.^. 'AM

GILPIX — PICTOU COAL FIELD.

One of thecv. boundary faulta runs from a point above McNaugh-
ton's mills on McCullock's Brook, to Parks' mills on SutherlatuVs
River, and has Coal measures to ihe north, Millstone grit and older
rocka to the south — thereby limiting the extension of coal crops in
the latter direction. Another fault, or rather succession of faults,
forms the western boundary of the Coal field, and produces a similar
effect on the coal strata in that locality.

A short distance to the south of the Stellarton Station, Sir W.
Logan has laid down what he calls the McLeod fiiult, and describes
as an upthrow to the south pursuing a course roughly parallel to
that already mentioned and known as the south fault. The evidence
of the presence of this fault on the west side of the East River is
not clear ; and those best qualified to speak with authority on the
subject, tell me that careful search. on the line marked by Sir W.
Logan has failed to show trace of its passage. On the east side of
the River the effects it is said to produce, are not such as to show
with certainty that its influence on the configuration of the Coal
field is at all equal to that claimed in the report of the Geological
Survey. In this paper the fault is i-etained in all its supposed
intensity to show that even under unfavourable circumstances the
district to be considered is of great value ; the conclusions to be
drawn when it is, in my opinion, more justly considered as not
present in serious moment, will be given further on. Between
these faults no measures of an age older than the productive are
known to exist, and the coal strata are with every appearance of
reason considered to run across this intervi.l without undergoing
disturbance.

The western boundary fault has cut off the southern extension
of the Westville seams, broken from their continuity with the Albion
seams by the fault at McCullock's Brook, which produces a down-
throw to the west. This fault has course N. 22° W., and inter-
cepts the Main seam a short distance to the west of McCullock's
Brook. On the down-throw side of t le fault going south, the
northerly dip at first ie not changed, but on the south Tne of the
Acadia area the measures become flat, then dip south, then flatten
again, and finally assume a northerly dip as the vvorkit gs of the

GILPIN — PICTOU COAL FIELD.

Intercolonial Coal Company are approached. This undulation of
the measures, aideil by the fault, obscured the crop of the IVIain
Beam most thoroughly ; and it was long believed that it was thrown
out of reach.

The results of the Geological Survey, howcv jr, affonl ground
for the opinion that the crop of the seam known as the Culton, is the
continuation of the Main seam — its strike to the westward being
intercepted obliquely by the great West fault which it finally leaves
for a distance, and is worked under the name of the Acadia seam
by the Drummond, Acadia, and Nova Scotia Collcrics. This view
is supported more by the relative positions of the seam and associ-
ated strata, than by any similarity in the coals themselves. The
Acadia, Culton. an'l ?ilain seams have no coal beds immediately
overlying them, while coal seams are found boneath them all at
equivalent depths. The importance of this conclusion is evident,
as the greatly increased extent of the Main or Acadia seams, as well
as of the underlying seams, is at once shown.

At present mining operations arc confined to the IMain or Acadia
and the Deep seams, but from practical trials it is known that many
of the lower beds are workable, and the amount of coal thus avail-
able may be gathered from the fact that there are over 1 00 feet of
coal in the seams of the Albion group, the lowest as yet known in
the Pictou Coal field.

The dip of the Culton seam on McCullock's Brook, and the
anticlinal structure of the measures of the south-east part of the
Acadia area above described, form what is known as the Bear
Creek synclinal of the report of the Geological Survey of the Pictou
Coal field. This synclinal is continued up to the west side of Mc-
Cullock's Brook, at which point we leave it at present.

Following the crop of the Main seam, which as it is the highest,
may be taken as the exponent of the Albion group, from the
Foster pit to the eastward we find it crossing the East River and
gradually turning to the east and south, until cut by the McLeod
fault. The course of tlie Main and Deep seams as far as this point,
is well ascertained by underground workings, and the pits and
boreholes on the Pictou Company's area. The McLeod fault being

1 r J

OILPIN — PIUTOU COAL FIELD.

an upthrow to the south, the continuation of the line of crop beyond
the fault must be searched for to the eastward at a distance deter-
mined by the amount of dislocation, and the angle of dip of the
strata.

We have now briefly sketched the line of this important scam
from Westville to the McCullock fault, and thence to the McLeod
fault on the east side of the East River. Explorations to settle its
position have not yet been pushed beyond this point, but enough
^as been done to afford a reasonable basis for calculations as to its
continuation beneath what are known as the Upper scams, viz :
the McBean and Marsh groups as shown in my paper on the Pictou
Coal Field.

Underlying the Main seam on Coal Brook are 1286 feet of
Sandstones and shales, containing no less than 12 seams of coal,
•varying in thickness from two to twenty feet. The effect of tiie
McLeod fault would naturally be to thrust some of these coals
nearly on the line of the Main seam ; and we find this to be the
case. A short distance to the east of the point where the outcrop
of the Main seam is intercepted by the McLood fault, the crop of
an 8 foot seam, known as the McLeod, has been opened and traced,
its strike being found to be S. 15° E., at an angle of 15°. Under-
lying this at a short distance, is reported the crop of a second seam.
The strike of the coal and associated strata gradually turns to the
south-west, and then bending to the east of south, is abruptly cut
off by the great South fault.

The limited explorations that have been made in the vicinity of the
McLeod fault are not decisive enough to show which of the Albion
group it is identical with, there having been no attempt made t-
ascertain its relation to over or underlying seams. The crop of a
coal seam is. known on the bank of a small brook near the hou^e of
\V. Miller, about one-half mile to the south of the crop of th'j main
seam. It is on the south side of the McLeod fault, and where
exposed dips to the east at a moderate angle. The interval be-
tween this bed and the McLeod seam shows a considerable extent
of ground underlaid by coal.

Between the latter seam and the Culton adit on McCuUock'a

GILPIN — PICTOU COAL FIELD.

McCuUock's

Brook there has been hardly anything done to show the economic
vnhie of the coal measures. It is known that nt one or two points
reverse or southerly dips are met in the strata exposed, and
that indications of coal have been observed — enough to show that
the synclinal form is preserved from the Bear Creek area to the
McLeod seam. This undulation is a minor one, being nowhere as
deep as that to the north, known as the Albion or Middle synclinal,
•« The deepest point in this trough showing only about 800 or
900 feet from the surface to the Acadia (main) seam." Geological
Survey-

We have now traced our s- nolinal as far eastward as the Fulling
Mill on McTjellan'i Brook. A short distance to the westward of this
Sir W. Logan has marked on his map of the Pictou Coal Field a
fault running N. 25° W., which he calls the Mill Riad dislocation,
and considers that it produces an upthrow to the westward. The
evidence on which it is laid down does not appear quite conclusive,
and I have been informed that in consequence of explorations made
last summer there is reason to consider it not of so hrge an extent
as anticipated.

Sir W". Logan states that he can find no evidence of any disturb-
ance on the lino of the production of the Mill Road fault to the north
of McLellan's Brook. Should this be the case, it forms a decided
exception to the general rule, affecting the north and south faults of
the Pictou Coal field, as proved by imderground workings, they
increase rapidly as they go to the north, frequently at the rate of
one in five.

The large body of shales overlying the Main seam does not
appear as persistent as the coal itself. Tht Foord Pit was sunk
900 feet to the Main seam, through dai*k shales and irorstone bands
only, while the Foster Pit suins; in equivalent measures less than
one mile to the westward, passed through large beds of sandstone
before reaching 280 feet of shale immediately overlying the same
seam. In the pit sunk on the Pictou Company's area, on the east
side of the river, sandstones were penetrated, replacing the enor-
mous beds of shale overlying the same seam a short distance to the
westward. As these changes in the nature of the strata enclosing

GlLl'IN — riCTOU COAL FIELD.

the coal seams, occur in so short a distance, 1 would venture to
BUgfiest that they render the theory of the alleged unconformity
of the measures lying to the east of the old Mill Road fault of loss
weight, especially when as in the Geological Survey report, the
bend of the measures to the east, and the quick change from shales
to sandstones are brought forward in the absence of more definite
knowledge, as the signs of an important fault.

At present we are best acquainted with the western side of the
black shales, and the experience of the miners shows that the change
from the soft carbonaceous black shales to the post and sandstone
rocks is very sudden, and may be n)arked by a line drawn from the
mouth of Coal Brook to the old Colin Pits. On the cast side of
the East lliver, the thickness and uniformity of the black shales
exposed, almost continuously, from the mouth of McLcllan's Brook
to the Grant farm, coupled with the large beds of sandstone, sunk
through one-third of a mile eastward, would allow on the east side
an equal sudden change from carbonaceous to arenaceous measures.

Still following the line of synclinal we have next to notice the
oil shales opened on McLcUan's Brook, one quarter of n mile
north of the Fulling Mill. These oil shales are found to occupy
the apex of a synclinal with a north-east course, and arc considered
with every appearance of reason the equivalents of the oil shale
opened on the Marsh Brook and also on the property of the JSIerri-
gomish Coal Company, three-fourths of a mile to the north-east of
the Mai*sh pit ; their dip and strike at these points being conformable
to the seams of the Marsh group.

A short distance to the south of the Fulling Mill arc a series of
faults bringing up lower measures which come abruptly against the
seams of the Marsh and McBcan's groups. The effect therefore of
these faults has been to throw the crops of the oil shales considerably
to the north of the position they would naturally occupy at the
south-west apex of the McBean synclinal, and to bring into the posi-
tion formerly occupied by them the series of coal seams known as the
McLean and Mountain groups. We are thus enabled to trace this
comparatively shallow synclinal from end to end of the coal field,
and to shovf that its presence has a great effect on the probability of
he extent of the Albion or Main seams across the whole district.

OILPIN — I'lCTOU COAL FIELD.

' more definite

It ia estimated by Sir W. Logan that the !McTknn 8 foot scum
underlies tlie Maroli group at a vortical depth of 700 to 800 feet.
The thickness of ihe measures between the oil shales and the
Fulling Mill being only 437 feet by actual measurement, it would
not appear possible to find th'i outcrop of this seaui south of the oil
shales on McLellan's Brook, as it probably abuts against the Fulli ig
Mill fault at a considerable depth from the surface.

Were the Mill road fault absent, or of comparatively small
extent, the task of comparing the various horizons would be a slight
one, as but one set of faults would require to be accounted for.
A comparison might then be confidently made between the .3 feet
scam and black shales found above the Fulling Mill, and the 3^
feet seam on McLellan's Brook near the Halifax Company's east
line, which is also found near the mouth of Coal Brook on the
Intercoloniid Railway and further to the westward. The underli/'
ing seams of the Albion group would then reach the South fault
with a strike to the east of south, and leave the fault again as
the measures lying to the south of the McBean seam assume their
north-east line.

This form would show that the caste -n half of the district pos^
scsees an almost similar s>ucture to that found at Westvillc, where
the interception of an undulation by a fault has hidden the crop of
the Main or Acadia seam for a short distance in the vicinity of the
Grog Brook.

In a paper read before you about two years ago, I gave what I
considered grounds for the equivalence of the Widow McLean and
the Albion groups.

The identity of these groups was supported, in addition to other
arguments, by the fact, almost too strong to be a coincidence, that
both these series of seams are overlaid at a height varying from
1300-1600 feet by a set of comparatively small coal seams, and
that as yet no coal has been found in the intervening strata.

During the summer of 1874 another seam has been found in this
series overlying the Main seam. Its thickness is about 4 ft. 6 in.
which you will observe closely, agrees with that of the Mountain or
Ilaliburton eeam. There have not been any attempts yet made to

\W' '

' Ml

OILPIN — riCTOU COAL FIELD.

prove its extension east nml west, but the fnct of its presence in this
part of the coal field, helps to support the views previously advanced.
Until the extent to which the crop of the Main seam is thrown
to the eastward by the McLeod fault is ascertained, there are not
sufficient grounds to determine if it reaches the South fault before
being met by the Mill road fault. Should investigations prove tliia
to be the case, the force of the argument is not lost, as the 1200
feet of measures underlying the Main seam are not all intcrsectd
by this fault, as its course outs the measures at a slight angle.

If wo consider the McLeod fault as one not of importance, we
would find the Main seam crossing to the South fault nearly on the
line of the McLeod scam ; and then the 3 feet seam above the
Fulling Mill would naturally fall into its relation to the Mountain
group on one hand, and the seams found overlying the Main seam
on the other side.

The extension of the Widow McLean or Main seams behind or
underlying the McBean seam, is the only thing needed to demon-
strate the fact that from one end to the other of the Coal field
along its southern border, is an almost continuous outcrop of a
group of large seams. The inferences to be dra>Vn from this need
not be extended beyond a thought of the amount of ground that
must be underlaid by the seams of the Lower or Albion group.

A careful study of the various faults and dislocations of the
southern part of this Coal field reveals in a most striking manner
the care and wisdom of the Great Architect of the Universe. Did
the strata follow the laws regulating their position in Cape Breton
and other Coal fields ; we would have had the Albion group, con-
taining two of the largest and finest coal seams in the world, buried
hundreds of feet below the surface, and accessible only over a ||
limited area. On the contrary, an examination of the map accom-
panying my paper, shews the crops of this lower group extending
in an irregular form from end to end of the Coal field, affording not
only unusual facilities for opening, but also a satisfactory proof of
its presence immediately south of the conglomerates.

Returning to the interval between the southern and McLeod
faults on the west side of the river, we find a district one and a half

GIM'IN — PICTOU COAL K1KI,D.

presence in this
Dusly advanced,
scnni is thrown
there are not
ith fault before
itions prove tliU
8t, as the 1200
t all intersettc'd
^'ht angle,
importance, we
It nearly on the
(earn above the

the Mountain
the Main eeain

seams behind or
eded to demon-
f the Coal field
18 outcrop of a

1 from this need
of ground that

bion

;roup.

ocations of the
striking manner
Universe. Did
in Cape Breton
ion group, con-
le world, buried
le only over a ||
the map nccom-
roup extending
Id, affording not
factory proof of

1 and McLeod
t one and a half

miles wide, yet unexplored. The comparison iniidc in the report
of the Geological Survey of Canada, of sonic of the strata in this
section, with sandstones immediately overlying the conglomerate
below New Glangow. is nt)t borne out by Prof. Dawson's research-
es, he being inclined from fossil evidence, as shown by his paper on
the transition of the Carboniferous into Permian, read last year
before the Geological Society of London, to consider the latter an
extension of the upper part of the Middle or Productive coal
measures. From the facts gathered relative to the structure of the
Pictou Coal field, these measures as suggested l)y the Geological
SurVey report, are probably lower than those containing the Albion
Main and Deep seams. The fact however <»f the extension of the
Bear Creek synclinal across this district, and that the amount of
dislocation caused by the McLeod fault is not of serious moment,
are important considerations. The reverse or southerly dips and
the presence of coal, point out the existence of seams of the Albion
or Lower group at this point, and the width between the two faults
would allow of a development, little if at all, inferior to that attain-
ed by the seams of the middle or Albion synclinal.

The question then arises why explorations have not been made
commensurate with the size of this district, and the importance of
ascertaining the presence of workable coal seams. A considerable
part of this space between the southern and McLeod fault is owned
by a company which naturally is not at present solicitous about
its contents, as their valuable working areas in other parts of the
field afford it full occupation. The dull state of our Coal trade is
also an evident reason why the attempt proposed a short time ago
to employ the diamond drill in that part of the district held by other
parties was not carried out.

There is, however, as far as our present knowledge extends, no
reason to doubt that this will eventually prove a very valuable addi-
tion to the present working limits of the Pictou Coal Field, and that
its extent is ample enough to afford room for the investment of
capital in several large Collieries.
7