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The coals of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are bituminous in character, and referable to the Carboniferous system, and it is possible that these measures may yet be found at a workable depth underlying Prince Edward Island. In the provinces of Ontario and Quebec coal is not found, although an anthracitic mineral is occasionally found in small quantities in the vicinity of Quebec, on the Island of Orleans, and elsewhere in this province, and has given rise to considerable expenditure in fruitless search for workable coal in these localities, in all of which only rocks of Lower Palæozoic age occur. In the North-West Territory the coals and lignites are of Cretaceous and Laramie age. In British Columbia the bituminous coal and anthracite of the coast region is of Cretaceous age, while both on the coast and in the interior of the province wide-spread Tertiary deposits occur, yielding lignites which in some cases approach true coals in composition.

Anthracite.

Cowgitz, Skidegate, Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C... R. Austin, Victoria, B.C. 101. Anthracite.

The deposits of anthracite on the Queen Charlotte Islands are, so far as examined, somewhat irregular in character. The locality best known is on Skidegate Channel, at the southern end of Graham Island. Here the coal has been worked in several places, and found in one instance to be as much as six feet thick. In the direction of its strike, however, it appears to thin out altogether, or to be represented by coal of very inferior quality, mixed with shale and clay iron-stone. The seams are vertical, and the associated strata are flanked to the north by escarpments of volcanic rock.

Analysis of two specimens of the anthracite by fast coking, gave (Report of the Geological Survey of Canada, 1872-73, p. 81, also Report for 1878-79):—

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A large amount of money has been spent by the Queen Charlotte Coal Mining Company in the construction of a wharf, houses, tramway, &c., and in endeavouring to work the seams, and though these efforts have not so far been attended with success, the measures here are worthy of further and more complete examination, particularly as this is the only known deposit of anthracite on the Pacific Coast. Bituminous coal has been found during the past year (1885) in the rocks of the same age some miles further north.-Cretaceous.

McLeod Stewart, Ottawa, O.

Banff Mines, N.W.T..

389. Coal (anthracite).

Like the anthracite from the Queen Charlotte Islands, this fuel is of Cretaceous age, though belonging to a lower horizon, in a formation which yields a flora with some Jurassic characters (Kootanie group, see Transactions Roy. Soc.

Canada, 1885). The coal occurs on the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, within the first range of the Rocky Mountains. The Cretaceous coal-bearing rocks here occupy a valley, which is in part that of the Bow, in part that of the Cascade River, and extends northward for a long distance. They are in the form of a synclinal fold, bounded by palæozoic limestones, and overturned to the eastward, and it is doubtless owing to the metamorphism occasioned by this great disturbance that the coal has passed into the state of anthracite. Two seams, each about four feet in thickness, are already known, and preparations are now in progress for working them on an extensive scale at an early day. In quality the fuel compares favourably with some of the best anthracites of Pennsylvania.

A recent analysis by Mr. C. Hoffmann, shows it to have the following composition:

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This mine is situated about forty miles north of Nanaimo, and about one and a half south-west from the shore of Baynes Sound, which forms a good harbour for shipping. In this locality there are two seams of coal. The lower varies in thickness from five feet two inches to seven feet; the lower two feet, however, containing thin seams of shale with impressions of plants. The upper seam is separated from the lower by about sixty feet of brownish-grey sandstone, and shows five feet ten inches of good coal. An analysis of a specimen from the lower seam gave Dr. Hunt by slow coking :

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A somewhat weathered specimen from the upper seam gave:

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This property is situated near the last. Only exploratory work has yet been undertaken, owing to the fact that the market is fully supplied by the Nanaimo mines. The most important seam shows seven feet six inches of good coal.

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437. Obelisk of coal, representing whole thickness of seam.
437a. Series of views of mines, wharves, etc.

The mines, four in number, are situated two and a half miles north-west of Nanaimo, and three miles west of Departure Bay. The deepest shaft is 365 feet, and the shallowest 210 feet deep. They are connected by a railway with the shipping wharves at Departure Bay, and extensive mining operations are carried on. The seam worked averages about nine feet in thickness. Specimens gave Mr. Hoffmann the following results :

Proximate analysis :

Hygroscopic water

Volatile combustible Matter

Fixed Carbon

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The coal does not form a strong coke. The output for 1884 aggregated 254,538 tons, the total number of hands employed being 672. The total output of coal from these mines in 1885 was 220,000 tons. The mines, however, are capable of producing double this amount if the demand should warrant it. Earnings of miners per day $3 to $4. The coal may be estimated as worth $4 per ton at the wharf. The greater portion is shipped to San Francisco, and some is sent to the Sandwich Islands.-Cretaceous.

Victoria, B.C.

514. Coal used in gas manufacture.

514a. Coke.

Victoria Gas Co., Victoria, B.C.

The coal used for making gas at Victoria is obtained from the Vancouver Coal Company's mines at Nanaimo, B.C.

Nanaimo Collieries, B.C.

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Vancouver Coal Mining & Land Co. (Limited),
Nanaimo, B.C.

94. Block of Coal (steam) weighing 5 tons 6 cwt. Esplanade shaft.
94a. Block of coal (steam), Esplanade shaft.

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555. Series of views of mines, wharves, &c.

This locality is seventy miles north-west of Victoria. The principal workings are on a seam which varies from six to ten feet in thickness. A specimen gave Dr. Hunt, by slow coking, the following results::

Volatile matter
Fixed carbon
Ash

38.40

51.45 Coke firm.
10.50

Another seam, seven feet thick, occurs above the one just mentioned, from which it is separated by about 140 feet of sandstone. The colliery has been in operation for nearly thirty years. The slopes and shafts are connected with the wharves by a well-built railway. The Esplanade shaft is fitted with a hoisting engine of the most modern pattern, and of great power. The output of coal for 1884 was 133,858 tons. 541 men were employed. The miners earn $2·50 to $4 a day. The output in 1885 was 137,548 tons. The principal markets are Victoria and San Francisco, but small quantities are also shipped to Honolulu, Mazatlan, Alaska, &c.-Cretaceous.

Saaquash, Vancouver Island, B.C.

288. Bituminous coal,

Saaquash Coal Mining Co.,
Victoria, B.C.

The seams found at this place in natural exposures near the beach are comparatively thin. Coal was worked here on a small scale by the Hudson Bay Company, before the discovery of the Nanaimo mines, but work has been suspended for many years. The measures are very regular, and are such as to warrant boring operations in search of other seams.- -Cretaceous.

North-West Territory.-The coals and lignites of this great region are entirely of Cretaceous and Laramie age, and differ in this respect from coals of the eastern provinces and states, and of Great Britain, which occur in the Carboniferous system.

The portion of the North West Territory, which, so far as yet known, affords the most abundant and valuable deposits of mineral fuel, is that in proximity to the Bow and Belly Rivers and their tributaries, extending eastward from the base of the mountains to about the 111th meridian, and forming the southern part of the district of Alberta. This region is, however, the only one which has, up to the present time, been made the subject of careful and approximately complete observation by the Geological Survey, and it is thus quite possible that the country holding the same relation to the base of the Rocky Mountains further north may yet prove throughout equally valuable as a source of fuel.

The fuels embraced in this region vary from lignites but slightly superior in quality to those of the Souris (to be mentioned further on), to coals containing a very small percentage of water, forming a strong coke, yielding an abundance of highly illuminating hydrocarbons, and resembling in every way ordinary bituminous coals. They have been made the subject of a series of careful proximate and ultimate analyses by Mr. C. Hoffmann, the results of which will be found in the Report of Progress of the Geological Survey for 1882-84. In some of the smaller basins included within the area of the Rocky Mountains, the alteration has been carried so far as to produce anthracite (see under Banff mine). The approach of the lignite-coals of the plains toward bituminous coals is, in a general way, co-ordinate with the distance from the disturbed region of the mountains. In the district of Assiniboia no fuels, other than true lignites, are met with.

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DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING RELATIVE COMPOSITION OF COALS, LIGNITES, &c.

The annexed diagram, taken from Dr. G. M. Dawson's Report on the Geology of the Bow and Belly River Region (Report of Progress of the Geological Survey, 1880-82) has been constructed for the purpose of illustrating in a general way the place of these coals and lignites in the scale of fuels. The fuels are here classed according to the amount of "fixed carbon" (charcoal or coke) which they yield. This method of classification, though by no means complete as regards the heat-giving capacity of a fuel-as much also depends on the quantity of moisture and ash, and quantity and nature of the volatile combustible matter -yet approximates sufficiently to the truth to illustrate the heating value, in a broad general way. The shaded portion of the diagram represents the fixed carbon graduating from twenty-five per cent. (charcoal) in wood to over ninety per cent. in anthracite, the complement to 100 per cent. being in each case made up by moisture and volatile matter. The spaces between the vertical lines represent ten per cent. each. An inspection of the diagram will show how favourable a position the workable coals and lignite coals of the Bow and Belly River region hold, and how completely they bridge over the gap which is sometimes assumed to exist between coals and lignites. The fuels near which the lower line is drawn in the diagram for the Bow and Belly region are those which are found in the disturbed belt near the base of the mountains, and, as before explained, appear to have been affected to a certain extent by pressure,

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