n and the more efficient the fuel. However, too much heat and pressure may result in the changing of coal to graphite (See Fig. 1).Fig. 1 Graph illustrating the relationship between carbon concentration and fuel efficiency. Note the decline in heating value as more volatiles are removed Source: Montgomery 1990.The coal present in eastern Canada was formed in the Fundy Basin of deposition. This basin developed after the Acadian orogeny . After these mountains were formed they immediately underwent physical and chemical weathering, and sediment washed down their slopes to be deposited in the Fundy Basin. In the Fundy basin sediment was further deposited in various sub basins compacting the peat layers present and forming the coalfields of Nova Scotia. The Riversdale fields were the first to be covered by sediment and therefore the oldest followed by the Cumberland deposits and the youngest and most extensive deposits, the Pictou group (Calder, 1985).Rise of the Coal IndustryThe first historical mention of coal in Nova Scotia was by then Governor Nicholas Denys in dispatches to France in 1673. In his dispatches he wrote that there was "a mountain of good coal four leagues up the Spanish River" near Cow Bay, Cape Breton Island. The first mining operation to be set up was by the French Acadians to supply the fortress of Louisbourg with coal for heating and various industrial uses. Mining in Pictou county started in 1807 after the discovery of coal there in 1798 by Reverend James MacGregor. Other entrepreneurs quickly realized the potential for profits and several sank small mines into the area (Calder, 1985).The age of the private locally operated mines would soon come to an end however. The King of England at the time was George the IV whose brother was Frederick, the Duke of York. Through his high living and gambling Frederick had incurred a substantial debt. In August of 1826 the King granted upon Frederick a sixty-year lea...
