| Between 1845 and 1962 the Geological Survey of Canada published more than eleven hundred reports and maps which relate to the geology of coal, albertite, and anthraxolite in Canada. B. R. MacKay (1947) incorporated 150 designated "coal areas" in his geological report to the Royal Commission on Coal, 1946, and these coal areas, together with "other" categories, have been used in the present report in compiling a bibliography of coal in Canada. A coal occurrence has both stratigraphic and geographic position, and references for coal, therefore, can be indexed toponymically by stratigraphic units, geological age groupings, geographic place names, and National Topographic System quadrangles. Albertite and anthraxolite are included in the bibliography because they have sometimes been confused with coal and reported as such. Examination of the overall bibliography and of individual references reveals some deficiencies in the literature of Canadian coal geology. More than one-third of the 150 coal areas in Canada have no more than two references each. Many references have inadequate coal information, and there is a general lack of up-to-date synopses. Although in common use, the "coal area" concept lacks explicit definition or precision, and it should be reviewed, especially as related to those coal areas with few references in the bibliography. |
