123

planes, at right angles to the bedding. These parting planes are
often marked like the ‘“‘augenkohle’”’ of the Germans,' as illus-
trated in Plate XVIA. The coal is harder than ordinary Penn-
sylvania anthracite and is a little harder than calcite. It is of
a rather more steely, grey-black colour than anthracite.

The material is evidently a member of the coal series that
has undergone greater metamorphism than ordinary anthracite.
It is without question closely allied to anthracite, but has not
been metamorphosed to nearly the same extent as the graphitic
variety of Rhode Island? coal or the schungite from near Lake
Onega, Russia. The latter substance has been described in
detail by A. Inostranzeff*? under the title of “A New, Extreme
Member in the Amorphous Carbon Series.”

Schungite is found interbedded in black clay slates cut by
greenstones. Four varieties of the schungite are noted, of
different degrees of purity, varying from nearly pure carbon to
carbonaceous slate. Inostranzeff concludes that schungite is an
extreme member of the coal series, intermediate between anthra-
cite and graphite, and from its properties, which he describes

in detail, he places it nearer graphite than anthracite.

The Graham Island coal is also an ‘‘extreme member,’ and
is doubtless also intermediate between anthracite and graphite;
but, unlike schungite, it is nearer anthracite than graphite, and
may be regarded as a connecting link between anthracite and
schungite. Although intermediate between anthracite and
schungite, the coal is closely related to both; and while perhaps
deserving of a specific name, the writer prefers to wait until
more detailed tests are made of the substance.* Analysis
11 on page 125 gives the composition of this material as
determined by proximate analysis.

One of the specimens of this coal collected from the dump
exhibits an unusual and interesting texture. It consists of com-

1Stutzer, O. Die wichtigsten lagerstatten der Nicht—Erze; Berlin, 1914, vol. 2, p. 171.

2 As illustrated by specimens in the collection of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Boston.

3 Inostranzeff, A. Neues Jahr. 1880, Bd. 1, pp. 97-124, and 1886, Bd. 1, pp. 92-93.

4 Specimens of this coal were in the possession of Mr. W. Fleet Robertson at the time of the
visit of the International Geological Congress to Victoria, B.C., in 1913. Some of the visiting
German and Russian geologists when shown the coal said it resembled schungite closely.