216 INTERTOK OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 



ings were amply rewarded by the discovery of extensive beds of coal 

 occupying the lowest levels in the channel of the river. The part ex- 

 posed fully to view was twelve to fifteen yards wide, and sixty-one in 

 length, N.N.E. and S.S.W,, any further development being concealed 

 by loose drift-sand, covered with thick scrub, which occupied the whole 

 valley, except the immediate channel in use. Mr. Eidley afterwards 

 found amongst this scrub another flat bed of even better-looking coal, 

 eighty yards long and six wide, in contact with the lower end of the 

 above ; and there is every reason to conclude that, on clearing away the 

 drifl-sand and examining the beds of the deep pools hereabouts, the 

 breadth of coal will be found much more extensive. It seemed to lie 

 horizontally, without perceptible dip or inclination ; but the adjoining 

 shales, which cropped out on the river's left bank, showed a dip of 45 

 to the S.E., and precisely resembled those which had previously been 

 seen on the Phillips. 



Diverting the small run of brackish water to a side channel, a pit 

 was dug five feet long and three feet deep, through the mass of coal, 

 without observing any change whatever in its appearance, which was 

 that of carbonized wood, resembling Pine, The grain could be readily 

 traced, and some of the pieces appeared even not to have been com- 

 pletely converted. Having been so long satured with water, it was 

 exceedingly tough and compact, and until dried did not break with a 

 brittle fracture. Elongated globules of bitumen, from the size of a pea 

 to that of a goose-egg, w^ere found in it, as if endeavouring to force 

 their way to the surface. As our mining tools consisted only of a 

 spade and a tomahawk, and I was desirous of moving on while day- 

 light favoured us, we did not penetrate more than three feet, but dried 

 some of the upper and lower pieces and put them through the test of 

 burning. This proved most satisfactory; they burnt with a good 

 flame, and without the slightest crackling or flying, emitted a regular 

 coal smoke and strong odour, and left no residue but a soft white ash. 

 The result was equally satisfactory when we submitted some of it to 

 the process for gas, by means of a tobacco-pipe and some clay. 



The river's bed was here tw;o or three hundred yards wide, between 

 very steep banks, and was filled either with rank grass or dense thick 

 scrub. Many marks of floods were visible to the height of at least 

 twenty feet, which will render care necessary in selecting proper sites 

 for shafts to work the coal. On the left bank, and in its numerous 



