iM wall Ap rey i ee q it prs ee, i fe Oe ey Ay" % t - 3 | Xe i SY . Fi AN | i fl mK pvaeinien Gone hy » “Ts . - , aN a ih Sih oe ny a i ibe iil rei 8 ERS a a Hol aN \ %y, 3 Gn %, a yeaa yt: ‘, 4 We a i Ce Py, > “4 Ais: 2 ; SMe SH sey oh Fe ‘s e = 2 Ne nat ~~ ie aa Ai a a 2 tan weal SS cl i , : ili cl o% ca % fai Mi | cae “asl “ a TNE . = i S s $ bes = ' < ee s = S j N Ps y 8 3 5 s $ aS, = 3 3 ~ { ' SCHOUTENS ISLAND Aaarmiy. VY SCHOUTEN'S ISLAND Aeanng Jf ¥ deatane A Vela ——dusland 3 Miles ___ r = - 4 s a“ > fo ~~ SECTION prom 4&B __ ? . ~~ ; Vertical Scale 00 feet be inch Hertzentad D*__ dinches lL / mile —i__ SCALE 4 2 Miley Zs crich : . abo rh Ag r mel oi Mt toh, 2 i th 1 A ty No. I. SCHOUTEN ISLAND. Hobart Town, 15th August, 1848. SiR, Havine now visited, and examined with all the eare and precision of which circumstances would admit, several of the Coal Basins of the Island, I have the honor to report my observations upon them to be sub- mitted to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor. And I have first to notice that at Schouten Island. This coal is situated on the northern shore of the Schouten Island, in Geographe Strait, about 2 of a mile west from the anchorage laid down in the charts. Vessels may anchor within 250 or 300 yards of the coal; and being then much nearer to the inner than to the outer end of the strait, they are sheltered from the long heavy roll of the external ocean. The only quarter from which mischief need be at all apprehended is that of Swansea, bearing about N.W., the direction of the prevalent wind, in which there is an open “‘ fetch” of several miles across Oyster Bay. Not- withstanding this, it would not be necessary for vessels to shift their anchorage unless during the very heaviest gales, when they might run under cover of the point on the opposite side of the strait, or bring up nearer the whalers’ anchorage, in either of which places the shelter would be complete. B 2 Schouten Island. It does not appear that any great difficulty would be experienced in constructing an open pier with a platform of plank, along which the coal might in ordinary weather be conveyed upon a tramway on wooden rails, and delivered at the termination into a barge, lighter, or larger vessel of moderate tonnage, in smooth water, and beyond the swell setting upon the beach. In moderate weather a boat can land without danger or difficultty within a few yards of the coal seam ; and in the finer part of the year, when easterly winds prevail, boats might thus with great ease and expedition be loaded at the beach. The whole eastern side of the Schouten Island, to the extent of about rds of its area, is of massive granite, rising into high, rugged, and picturesque hills. The remaining third of the surface of the Island con- sists of greenstone eminences ; lofty and barren enough for the most part, but still more undulating and rounded in their outline, and more prolific of vegetation and timber trees, than the granite section, which, except in ‘deep ravines, and around the base of the hills, supports only, and at long intervals, a scanty show of scrubby and stunted plants. On the more gentle slopes of the greenstone hills, and their varied undulations, there is besides a forest of gum trees (Hucalyptus of various species), many stately specimens of Oyster Bay pine (Callitris Australis), with a good deal of grass and other herbage fit for sheep and cattle. With a view to the maintenance of a number of men to work the coal, it is worth noticing, that from 200 to 300 sheep have at one time run and improved in con- dition upon the Island. The greenstone is generally prismatic or schistose in structure ; but sometimes it is massive, very compact, Schouten Island. 3y and of a deep dark-bluish colour, with a flat conchoidal fracture and ringing sound, like that of clinkstone when struck with a hammer. Flanking the greenstone, and girding the coast, with slight intermission, from the point forming the southern side of the entrance to Geographe Strait, out of Oyster Bay, round to about the south-west point of the Island, is sandstone rising into vertical cliffs of considerable height,—whence, however, it dips at once under the greenstone, and does not any where present itself in the central parts of the Island. From the western entrance point of the strait, a curved beach of shingle and sand extends to the situation where the coal is; and there is within the bend a long shallow lagoon full of reeds and bulrushes, the roots of which abound in starch. This lagoon is banked out by a ridge of large rounded pebbles and sand, thrown up at a time when the elevation of the land must have been less by several feet than it is at present. Immediately behind this, the land,‘which at the time of my visit was rank and green with herbage, swells easily up into rounded greenstone hills. Where the coal has been found, schistose sandstone and shaly clays show themselves along a steep sloping bank for about 160 yards, at either extremity of which space the greenstone hems it in, down to the shingle and sand on one side, and to the water’s edge on the other. This eruptive rock seems to have been poured from some central point of the Island, or more probably from a nearly meridional line of extrusion, which may be traced along the western side of the Schouten main-land, form- ing an irregular and occasionally interrupted line of un- dulating grassy hills, with low dark head-lands, which determine the limits of that side of Oyster Bay, and of the extensive inland waters at the head of Swanport, as 4 Schouten Island. far as the mouth of the River Apsley. However this may be, the greenstone appears to repose (at the point I have mentioned, and which is marked on the Plan and Section with the letter C) upon the coal-measures, which dip to the S.E. at an angle of 12° or 13°, and range to the S.W. and W.S.W. The point of greenstone (D), which juts into the sea to the eastward of the coal, partially at least overlies schistose clay with vegetable impressions,—which clay stretches under and supports the coal-seams and asso- ciated beds. To the eastward of the greenstone point (D), sand- stone (E) recurs for a short space, but having suffered upheaval; for it is inclined at an angle of about 30°, with numerous veins and seams of a ferruginous nature traversing its substance. High on the bank it becomes soft, laminated, carbonaceous, and of course dark in colour,—the same which is associated with the coal at (C),—and probably indicates the extension of the seams from the opposite side of the greenstone point to the flattish valley (F) within. There is, however, no natural exposition of the strata absolutely to determine the question of the continuity or presence even of the seams: nor could it be ascertained whether, if coal actually exists at F, it is situated at a depth from the surface at which it may be found prac- ticable to work it. Where this upthrow of sandstone occurs, there is seen at low water-mark a highly inclined slaty clay, and im- mediately adjoining it massive granite in situ. This clay-slate is probably of the transition era, as the beds of sandstone would appear to rest upon it uncon- formably ; and it displays much of the cuboid structure, and possesses the ferruginous septa so common in the old metalliferous rocks. ~~ Schouten Island. 5 Recurring to the coal in the spot (C) where I have indicated it as being accessible by water almost to the outcrop of the seams, I have to state that I found there the remains of considerable workings. This enabled me to see that the strata immediately over and under the coal are of white fire-clay, and replete with vegetable impressions, which fire-clay is succeeded on either hand by soft carbonaceous sandstone and shales. There are two seams of coal diagonally intersecting the face of the hill: the upper is a thin one of worthless stony anthracite, about 40 feet up the bank: the lower seam is a valuable one ; it measures throughout 6 to 63 feet, and consists in its upper part of a subordinate layer of anthracite of a porous and coke-like character, with several layers in succession of bituminous coal, separated only by two or three very thin bands of shale and hard- ened and altered clays, and having a few inches of hard black shale under all. From aseam of such magnitude and quality it is reasonable to expect, after making fair allowance for waste, that at least four feet of good coal for domestic or other purposes might be realized. It is usual to include under the name of anthracite all non-bituminous coal. There are two sorts, however: one is light, porous, and hard, with great tenacity ; the other is slaty, dull, earthy, and heavy. The former burns freely, has great heating powers, and yields its caloric rapidly. The latter ignites only at a high temperature, burns slowly, and radiates the heat which it is capable of pro- ducing through a longer period of time, and is of course a less efficient heating agent. It will be convenient to distinguish these two sorts of anthracite by the terms earthy and coke-like, differmg as they do so widely in their qualities and value. 6 Schouten Island. As a general rule, bodiesin burning heat in proportion to the carbon which they contain; but combustion may be retarded by the presence of earthy matter, and one coal, though containing as compared with another less carbon, may yet have greater heating power, in conse- quence of its containing bitumen, and its combustion being more rapid and complete. It appears certain, for instance, that the Schouten coal taken in the aggregate, from its containing so consider- able a proportion of bitumen in the lower part of its seam, and ‘so large an amount of carbon in the upper portion of it, possesses heating powers far superior to the coal from Port Arthur, which probably contains a much larger pro- portion of carbon in a given weight. Earthy anthracite in a state of combustion is not only less powerful in emitting heat, but, in consequence of the extreme difficulty with which it ignites, a great deal of time, and already realized caloric, are wasted by its introduction into furnaces in an unprepared state. It only burns after attaining a high temperature; and until it reaches this point it absorbs heat, and reduces the temperature around it. An owner of steam machinery here informs me, that he considers the value of the Sydney bituminous coal, from the greater intensity and manageableness of its heating powers, as three to one compared with Port Arthur coal. . The customary articles of fuel rank as heating agents in the following order :— Perfectly dry Wood. Pit Coal. Coke. Wood Charcoal. The Oils, &e. In the preparatory roasting of metallic ores for re- Schouten Island. i) duction, slow combustion is desirable, as some of them are fusible and easily run, involving surrounding objects, and impeding the general process of expulsion of sulphur. The inferior coal of the subordinate slaty layers would be adequate to this purpose; while mixed portions of the bituminous and carbonaceous qualities would answer well for the subsequent processes of reduction, where a full and effective heat is required to be at once applied. More than 3 feet of the Schouten seam are bituminous, emitting black smoke, and yielding a white flame, and a powerful heat. This would suit well for domestic purposes, and for the preparation of illuminating gas. With these objects in view, the best of it might therefore be set apart in working it out. The inferior and mixed qualities would, as I have said, be adequate to all the necessities of smelting furnaces ; while the coal taken generally from the seams, after rejecting a few inches of stony and earthy anthracite at the very top, and two narrow bands of hard tena- cious stony matter at and a litile below the middle of it, with a few inches of the slaty matter beneath, would be found I think quite equal to the requirements of Steam Navigation on long voyages, where it is essential that the highest and most expeditious heating power should be comprised in the smallest possible compass. The situation in which this coal occurs could scarcely . be more favourable for shipment ; and the position of the beds falling about one foot in 53 or 6, as they run diagonally down the slope of a moderately steep bank capped with greenstone, offers every facility for carrying into the seam drifts and shafts, wherever they may be needed, for riddance of water, for air-courses, &c. It is not probable that water would be troublesome in working this coal, at least from the sea level to the crop of the seam, 8 Schouten Island. The country behind undulates a good deal, and is, therefore, naturally well drained. On the other hand, the thick bed of hard clay with vegetable impressions immediately over the coal is apt to flake off and descend in large irregular masses, and does not on that account form a good roof. It would, therefore, in mining be requisite to prop strongly with timber, and to leave ample solid pillars of coal. At the same time, I observe, that it is only in those portions of the galleries in which the coal has been worked completely out that the roof has fallen in; and that where the roof is well arched in the anthracite and shale in the upper part of the seam, no separation what- ever has occurred. By adopting this practice throughout, timber might therefore, to a great extent, be dispensed with. With reference to the insufficiency, however, of these clayey beds as a roof, it is right to state that the passages have all been left open to the action of air and moisture, which could not but lead, in the nature of things, to partial disintegration and detachment of masses from both roof and sides. The old workings are of the following nature and extent :-— One main drift begun a little above high water-mark, and nearly 6 feet x 6 feet, has been carried in the direction (S.S.W. and W.S.W.) or range of the seam more than 100 yards. From this two branch galleries have been worked to- wards the crop, so as to communicate round a massive square pillar. A narrow air-course had been carried thence to the surface of the bank. The main drift has a slight rise inwards, so that when the floor is clear from obstruction, water finds its way to Schouten Island. 9 the beach at the entrance. ‘There is a tramway along the bottom upon which trucks have been used to convey away the coal. Water stood nearly a foot deep in a great part of the drift at the time I inspected it, in consequence of its being dammed in by rubbish fallen from the roof and sides. There was a continual dripping from the roof in some parts of the drift; and at its termination the drops fell so thick that it was difficult to maintain a light. The drift ended abruptly, and apparently in massive clay, having its surface worn and smoothed by the per- petual flow of water over it. To me, in the imperfect light which I could command, it looked like a fault or shift of the strata; and I was dis- posed to consider the coal-seam as suddenly broken off at or near that point by the greenstone. On this assumption, I calculated that no greater amount than 25,000 or 30,000 tons could be realized by working out the seam to its crop; and that a similar or somewhat larger quantity might be drawn from workings to the dip by the employment of a steam engine, &c. Having since referred to some of the persons formerly working the Schouten coal, I am assured that the appear- ance of a fault or shift at the end of the main gallery was deceptious, and that the coal-seam was perfect where the workings were relinquished ; a fact which gives a very different aspect to the extent and value of the colliery. There is a second drift 30 yards to the westward, and about 15 feet higher up the bank—of course nearer the crop of the seam. This drift proceeds horizontally in the same direction as the former for about 50 yards. The second drift is free from water, but portions of the roof and walls have fallen in at many points. 10 Schouten Island. The inclination of the seam appears to be a little eveater at this level. Other openmgs have been made and abandoned, and they are now filled up with rubbish. There is a thin seam of hard earthy anthracite about 35 feet above the 6-feet seam of coal, overlaid with shale, slaty clays, and soft carbonaceous sandstone. With regard to the probable amount of coal to be ob- tained at the Schouten Island, I venture to give an opinion with diffidence. The coal-seams partially show them- selves variously disrupted and dislocated in the cliffs of the sandstone skirting the south-west shore of the Island, at a distance of about two miles from the old workings. But the surface of the country is very broken, indicating a disturbance in that direction so great, as to render it unsafe to calculate with any degree of confidence with- out actual sections by boring at different points in the course of the crop. Assuming the superficial contents of the Island at 16 square miles, and that the coal originally extended over the third part of it,—that part which I now state to be occupied by greenstone,—and supposing that, after reject- ing ;!;th of this for loss by denudation, &c., an area of two-fifths (say two square miles) were found productive of coal, of which it might be possible to mine out one- fourth part, then about 3,000,000 tons would be realized from a seam yielding four feet of coal. But this calculation hinges altogether upon the ques- tion, whether coal may be found to extend at an avail- able depth under the trappean rocks into the central valley between the granite and greenstone hills. It will be safer, therefore, to presume that the seam under notice is continued with greater or less regularity to the point where it is seen in broken and disjointed masses in the cliffs on the south-west side of the Island,—a direct Schouten Island. 11 distance which I have roundly computed at two miles,— and that it may be found practicable to push works under- ground half the distance, realizing 4 feet of coal along one mile at least through a breast of 500 feet or there- abouts. This would give a product of 10,560,000 cubic feet, which, deducting one-fourth for loss in various ways, would yield, at 20 feet to the ton, nearly 400,000 tons of coal, and this by working to the crop only. It is obvious that by working to the dip of the seam, and using powerful and expensive steam machinery, a much larger additional quantity might be obtained. The great thickness of this seam of coal, and its isolated position upon the corner of a small Island, claim for it the relation of a very small part of a large basin to its whole. It seems more than probable that the expanse of waters in Oyster Bay occupy the place of a system of coal, shale, and soft sandstones, which once constituted a large coal field, of which one small remnant presents itself on Schouten Island, and others at or near Little Swanport and Rocky Hills, and at intervals along the base of the hills at the extremity of Great Swanport. Prosecuting this view of the subject, I traversed in various directions the Schouten peninsula and main-land as far as the head of Moulting Bay, near the mouth of the Apsley River, and then crossed towards the Douglas - River. On the Schouten peninsula in Geographe Strait, immediately opposite to the coal-mines on the Schouten Island, there is. a nook in which the carbonaceous, schistose, and clayey sandstones with vegetable impres- sions, which accompany the Schouten seams, crop out ; but the strata are concealed on every side but one by masses of trap rocks, and almost immediately ) lunge 12 Schouten Island. into the sea, dipping to south east at an angle of about 30° or 35°. The whole eastern side of the Schouten peninsula, like that of the Schouten Island, is of granite, varying from coarsely crystallised and porphyritic to very fine and even grained, and from white felspathic granite to that of a bright pink or red colour, every where forming mountain masses. A legend which the Aborigines of Van Diemen’s Land have retained, concerning one of the granite mountains near Wine-glass Bay, induced me to ascend it. I was repaid for the labour by the discovery of a greenstone vein running nearly north and south along its ridge almost to the summit: there was no greenstone visible in mass within a mile or more of the locality. Sandstone forms a small low island in a bay not far from the bar entrance to Great Swanport ; and a few miles farther north it is upheaved into hills of several hundred feet of elevation, on the Schouten main-land between the granite on the east coast and the greenstone on the Swanport side, extending to about the head of Moulting Bay. At the township of Llandaff, from which to the east coast the country is but slightly elevated, sandstone again appears. There is also scattered over a great part of that flat neighbourhood, in the shape of fragments of silicified wood, strong evidence of the presence of coal strata : there is evidence, too, of the long-continued operation of currents of water in the smoothly-rounded surfaces of these naturally very hard spicular and splintery fragments. The district through which the Apsley runs undulates but very slightly, and the river is consequently tortuous and sluggish: there is occasionally to be seen, disposed singly or in groups upon these plains, tall bare druidical- Schouten Island. i3 looking blocks of greenstone, attesting, like the pebbles and rounded fragments of fossil wood already mentioned, the action of a long-continued denuding force ; a force which, no doubt, materially contributed to determine the present physical characters of surface and soil, &e. It may have been that this district, immediately pre- ceding the last considerable rise of the land, (when it is probable the numerous lagoons lying along the eastern coast of Van Diemen’s Land, of Cape Barren, and of Flinders’ Island were formed,) lay under water, and was - subjected to the operation of furious tides setting to and from the ocean and Oyster Bay,—a period when the high peaks of the Schouten main could only have formed - the summits of a chain of small islands and craggy islets. To the westward of the comparatively level country of the Apsley, there is a range of hills along the base of which coal crops out at several points. I regret that circumstances prevented me from visiting the localities. In the direction of Wabbs’ Boat Harbour there is near the sea-coast a granitic strip of country ; and a few miles to the northward of it carboniferous sand- stone shows out in great force. There is contained in it innumerable thin seams and irregular patches of a lus- trous jet-black coal, with fossil trees in abundance, hay- ing this peculiarity, that many of the stumps of trees which are there to be seen imbedded are partly silicious and partly anthracitic, with their roots spreading out on every side in the beds of sandstone, which but slightly decline from the horizontal. Learning that coal had been picked up in the mouth of a creek emptying itself into one of several lagoons inside the sand-hills which bound the long open beach there, I carefully examined the rivulet,—tracing up its windings for about two miles,—when I discovered a 14 Schouten Island. seam of bituminous coal, of about 20 inches thick, reposing upon a series of shales and slaty clay, and overlaid by a bed of unconsolidated gravel and boulders of greenstone. This coal ignites readily, and yields a steady clear flame, without splitting and flying. I traced the creek for about half a mile further, where it ran over solid greenstone rock through a narrow gorge between two hills, so as to exhibit on either. bank con- siderable sections of its columnar and prismatic structure. I still found pieces of coal which had been floated down in the stream; and, of course, concluded that coal existed in situ at a yet higher. level, on the further side of this ridge of greenstone; but I was unable at the time to follow out the investigation. One side of the valley through which this rivulet runs is deeply covered with a gravelly alluvium, containing numberless fragments of coal, from the size of a pea to that of a foot square; while the gravel on the opposite side, and which overlies the seam of coal, is free from any mixture of the: sort. It is not unlikely that this seam, if prosecuted, may expand, or lead to more productive beds, or that it may prove to be continuous or closely associated with beds which are said to. crop out between high and low water- mark on the sea-beach adjoining, and in the banks of the Douglas River, which is not more than two or three miles distant. I looked for a considerable seam in the Douglas River, but failed in detecting it. In the gravelly beds along the banks, and in the eddies at the channel, were numerous loose fragments of bituminous coal, varying in appearance from dull schistose and greyish black to bright, glistening, and jet-like,—a coal which burns readily: with a clear bright flame. The seam in the Douglas is said to be eight or nine feet thick. Schouten Island. i Gr The river, it is to be regretted, has a bar entrance, against which a deep heavy surf rolls even in the finest weather, rendering it not only dangerous but impracti- cable for shipping, or even boats; but the distance is only seven or eight miles, and nearly upon a level the greater part of the way to Wabbs’ Boat Harbour, and there small coasting vessels can in ordinary weather come alongside a wharf to load. In reporting upon, and recommending, the coal at the ' Schouten Island as adapted for almost any purpose to which English coal may be applied, and stating what I considered to be difficulties and drawbacks connected with mining operations there, I have omitted to notice the probable cost of production of the mineral. One of the miners formerly employed, and having a beneficial interest in the workings, at the Schouten Island has informed me, that he could afford to deliver coal at the water’s edge there from 4s. to 5s. the ton. If the cost of production, including all minor and inci- dental expences, be taken at 7s. instead of 5s., and 7s. more be added for freight to Hobart Town, with an allow- ance of Is. per ton as a royalty, the entire outlay upon the article, when brought into market here, would be 15s. per ton. Port Arthur coal—a very inferior article—is sold, I believe, on the wharf at Tasman’s Peninsula at 8s. 6d. ; and the price in Hobart Town has recently been 16s. per ton. Sydney coal averages in the Hobart Town market 25s. to 30s. the ton. As the Schouten coal is, for every purpose, very superior to that of Port Arthur, and some parts of the seam are fit for any purpose to which Sydney coal may be applied, it appears that the ordinary state of the market prices relatively to them is such as to afford a fair 16 Schouten Island. prospect of profit upon the article brought from the Schouten Island to Hobart Town, independently of any quantity productively consumed on the spot in smelting ores, or sold there to a Steam Navigation Company, or otherwise. I am glad to have it in my power to present a Report so favourable of the character and extent of the coal, and of the natural facilities which exist for obtaining it. I trust it may prove satisfactory to His Excellency. I propose shortly to prepare and forward Reports of my observations upon the Coal-fields at Southport and Recherche Bay, and at Richmond and Jerusalem, for the information of the Lieutenant-Governor ; and I trust to have it in my power, before taking leave of the subject, to lay before His Excellency the results of experiments on the combustible constituents of these coals, and their comparative calorific powers. I have the the honor to be, Sir, Your very obedient Servant, JOSEPH MILLIGAN. The Honourable The Colonial Secretary, Sc. Sc. Sleoe. hich. " vie ‘ P fi i in ia Ae ’ be i, ee ee RA, it ate noe eh - AAS ahh = F AA pi. ; Pa 7 f Gu eee Z , oe SECTION of he line of Cousl from the WHA LES HEAD 4 tm ue River and Pant beyond oi B the tine SL. and WW. os actially a curved line und ferris the hasten site y' SOUTH CAPE BAY . s » we SS SWE Sa WN i : : : : LZtorvzontal Scale 4 Tnches to One Mole Li aes z* - 5 Jeo jeu fou lw (00 «© Jue lovo Fed Vertical LD I00 Feet fe une Lnew ae ee 17 No. II. WHALE’S HEAD AND SOUTH CAPE. Hlobart Town, 18th September, 1848. Sir, I wave the honor to report, for the information of His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, the results of my examination as to the coal between the Whale’s Head and the South Cape. It seems probable that this coal deposit extended originally in the direction of Recherche Bay towards Southport. In the section of the sandstone cliffs, immediately adjoining the station at Southport, there is a seam of black carbonaceous shale overlying beds of schistose clay and sandstone, and overlaid by yellowish white sandstone. The dip of these beds is S.W., at an angle of 15°. About three-quarters of a mile to the west of the Station the sandstone is underlaid by massive beds of a ‘bluish clay, having in’ it numerous, but rudely defined, impressions and traces of vegetable matter. In the sandstone, immediately over these clayey beds, I found fragments of coarsely silicified wood, and of wood fossilized by iron and silex together. Imbedded deep in the clay rock itself I met with a large rounded boulder of well-characterised granite, having its felspar of a yellowish colour, and it smica black. [Tam c 18 Whales Head and South Cape. not aware of any granite formation existing in the vicinity, nor did I see any more of it imbedded. As itis probable that the clay and sandstone rocks, which alternate with shale,—all rather fine and even in their composition,—and which apparently pass in the upper series of beds into coal, have been deposited in the waters of an estuary, it becomes a curious qnestion, in what manner a large rounded mass of granite could arrive in such a position: the transporting power and agency of glaciers, or—and which is more probable—of icebergs, may possibly be considered necessary to explain the phenomenon. To the massive clayey stratum succeeds sandstone, which, a little lower in the series, is again replaced by compact beds of hard tenacious clayey rock with im- pressions as before. Sections of each are visible along the north-east side of the harbour, in the direction of the crop of the strata. A shaft was sunk a few years ago by the Government in the line of dip of the strata, and about half a mile from the Southport Station, where the black shale is exposed. Some beds of shaly matter were penetrated, but coal was not obtained. -The direct distance, and nearly in the line of dip of these beds, to the northern port in Recherche Bay, does not exceed six miles: at Recherche the rocks are of sand- stone and shale, and dip still to the same quarter. It imay, therefore, be presumed that they are continuous, or that they have at one time been so, though they now undulate and vary from the intrusion of trap-rocks. On the eastern side of this part of Recherche the beach is almost exclusively composed of fragments of fossil- wood, resulting from the disintegration of the yellow arenaceous beds overlying the carboniferous sandstone. The remains of two shafts, and of a nearly horizontal Whale’s Head and South Cape. 19 drift, which were excavated by a company a few years ago in search of coal, are there. The shafts, at the time of my visit, were full of water, and water stood so deep in the low-roofed drift-way, that I could not conveniently enter it, so as to examine the coal; but I found scattered around small fragments of coal, of anthracitic character. The coal-beds at Recherche Bay, besides being inferior in quality, have the additional disadvantage of dipping under water, almost from the moment they are touched ; and must necessarily be worked, if at all, at great com- parative cost,—circumstances likely long to postpone further mining operations there. Pity it is that Recherche Bay—one of the finest and most capacious harbours in the Island—offers, except to the ship-builder, scarcely any inducement to permanent occupation. Few places in the Island are possessed of picturesque beauty in the same degree. Its quiet bright waters, and its sinuous shores, sloping upwards into densely wooded hills, which only terminate in the dis- tance in lofty peaks and ranges of bold and rugged mountains, present combinations of the natural elements of beauty but rarely met with. Sullivan’s Point, at the north side of the entrance to Recherche Bay, is composed of greenstone ; the point of land standing out between the northern and southern ports in Recherche Bay is of greenstone; the extensive promontory known as the Whale Head consists of green- stone. The surf-beaten line of coast round the southern half of South Bruni Island is also greenstone ; and there can be little doubt that the islets, rocks, and reefs studded in the intervening space—the Acteons, the Black Reef, the Blind Reef, and the sunken rock of the George I11., &c., are constituted of the same hard and durable material. 20 Whale’s Head and South Cape. It seems but little out of place to record en passant the danger to boats proceeding, even in moderate weather, in the close vicinity of the last-named rocks. The pilots and other experienced persons say, that the sea, after remaining still and smooth some minutes, will often rise in a sudden tumultuous wave, overwhelming every thing in its way. By an unexpected surge of this description, a boat, with constables and crew, from Southport was instantaneously swamped near the Black Reef a few years ago. At the southern extremity of the south portion of Recherche Bay is Cockle Creek, which, from being extremely narrow at the entrance, expands immediately behind a line of low sand-hills into shallow flats, with green rushy borders. These flats are succeeded about a mile to the westward by extensive levels of low marshy ground, closely covered with a sward of Juncee, Cyperacee, and a sprinkling of coarse grasses. This valley trends first to the southward, and then, as it expands, it stretches to the north of west. It is bounded to the north by greenstone hills, rising into the high land of the interior; and on the opposite side by the elevated ground forming the Whale’s Head. The western termination of the valley, sparsely tim- bered with Banksia, stunted Eucalypti, and shrubby Myr- tacee, consists of a series of sandy and ferny ridges, with narrow intervening flats and small lagoons, which, a little more to the north, end in a countless succession of tiny rills running in deep channels, every where shaded by dense but not heavy forests of the gum, myrtle, and sassafras trees, intermingled with Melaleuce, the elegant Anopterus, and straggling Cenarrhenes, and their almost invariable and rich accompaniment, the arborescent ferns. Whale’s Head and South Cape. 2.1 To these sand-hills succeeds a natural embankment of greenstone,—a prolongation, seemingly, of the eruptive masses of the main-land into the Whale’s Head pro- montory. The locality now referred to is about north west from the most southern projection of the Whale’s Head, and distant from it in a direct line three and a half or four miles. The greenstone here forms, at an elevation of some 400 feet, a capping of unascertained depth over stratified masses of shales, sandstones, and. schistose clays, with coal, which present to seaward vertical sections from 200 to 250 feet in height. There is a small island of igneous rock close to the main, and almost accessible from it at low water, a little to the south or S.S.E. of the cliffs I refer to: it is con- nected by a narrow dyke with the Brccustoue overlying the carboniferous rocks. Another dyke stands directly across the strand, like a dark wall, and juts out into deep water, barring further progress in that direction, except by scaling its almost perpendicular side of 20 or 25 feet. The line of coast, and the dip of the carboniferous strata, are nearly parallel, that is, south east ; and the in- clination of the beds is about 12’. The following is the long order of succession of these beds, as nearly as I could obtain it, during a season of very tempestuous weather, and in an exposed situation. There are several seams of coal; the principal one, called a 4-feet seam, proceeding from beneath upwards, consists of Black shalevss. ce ece sees: 12 imehes, Wola teteley sel statels sfelears NOuGICtOs Hard anthracite ........... 3 ditto. Brown clay, soft and plastic 2 ditto. 22 Whale’s Head and South Cape. Hard anthracite ........... 2 inches. OnLy «:a50'ancsiste «0 esate o's eee ueNugN Black shale... .. os262%%. 2), 8 Gitta: The coal which it yields is highly carbonaceous ; much of it has a porous coke-like aspect, and it contains iron pyrites to such an extent, that it is disagreeable and in- convenient to breathe the fumes of sulphurous acid gas extricated during its combustion, even when at the distance of some feet from the fire, and in the open air : it is therefore a coal inadmissible for domestic purposes. A low and nearly horizontal drift was carried into this seam by the Southport Coal Company some years ago ; and the roof and sides are still perfect from the entrance inwards. The coal is not very difficult of ignition: it burns without flame, yielding a strong heat. It has been approved, it is said, for furnaces, or rather for black- smiths’ forge-work,—a thing not unlikely, as it partakes a good deal of the nature of coke, which, next to wood- charcoal, is our most valuable heating fuel. From a careful examination on the spot, it did not appear to me that the seam would yield more than two feet of useful coal. This, taken together with the fact of its being destitute of bitumen, and placed in a situation to preclude the possibility of shipment, except after land carriage to Recherche Bay—a distance of six miles—must, for an indefinite period, shut it out of consideration as an article of statistical value to the Colony. No vessel or boat could, even in moderate weather, approach with safety the rocky and iron-bound shores near it. It is notwithstanding desirable that the situation, rela- tions, and facilities for obtaining this coal, as well as the value of it when acquired, should be known and recorded, Whale’s Head and South Cape. 23 in order to guide persons interested in such matters for the future : and hence the minuteness with which I have availed myself of the magnificent natural sections un- folded along the sea-coast. The rocks associated with this coal follow in ascending sequence thus :— ft. m. Conland shaley cei eases owes Pe Ou) Sandy clay, compact and whitish ..... 8) Shale, containing 3 inch of shining coal O 9 Sandstone, soft white ......... BOARS REN Oy Ditto mixed with shale ........... S20) Dititos ditto. msSeams\ ... eteis cislsie ie 5 6 Clay ironstone, in nodules .......... O 6G Sandstone, whitev ris n0s 4) aitie e slates. 6 Di G Clay, :shaly, bDrowi sh. satiscis 6 ie «clo oe 0 3 Ditto and clayey sandstone ........ 2 0 Coal, with thin shale between ....... 0 10 haloes iblacls isnye sits Goo ce iets ales Seay ln @. Ditto, and/shaly clay: .. uig.sesceans ch) 6 Clayey beds, containing nodules;- and seams of clay ironstone ......... 6 QO Shale brow) siesitie ss sels bl bie aah dis bine Ou A Slaty clay, with clay ironstone ...... 10 0 Coal, black shining .......... feces ve Oe 0 Shale, black, oi... si 5.. WSs ISTARE RS stoltde OG platy clay ...0.6.. WHA OObOE jal of eietoieie seas O SITs c, ntertpstalinvevcletst ete. « Uh Bere talaiete lever otc Olas SHIMON: BOSSouoboducodCobndnodoe . La © Ditto mixed with shale ..... Bie dole Onan Ditto, whitish ...... Sodnoo ono oy we 205.0 lath clan site tate sae x Ney “ TVs Fe eto, ¥ «, + A . Te eStats ck Ae Pm é ; IACAHE | A ee wsclevaled upow Gree —— .....-/2 feel Seam Greenslore (74 mites along Ghe Line of Directvori of Leads — beng nearly North and South.) SECTION from the Goal at FINcAL where i crops out tn The two crecks ab