1895. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 303 



Victorian Mines. 



From time to time we receive the Government Reports of the 

 Secretaries for Mines of various parts of the AustraHan continent, 

 but as a rule they have Httle besides technical details of a nature 

 uninteresting to our readers. The last received is that of Victoria 

 for the year 1894, a folio full of plans of mines and pictures of gear. 

 The bulk of the report is concerned with the output of gold, and in 

 this connection the secretary deplores the loss of the Government 

 Analyst, Mr. J. C. Newberry, whose latest investigations were directed 

 to the saving of slime-gold. The chief feature for congratulation is 

 the expanse of the coal industry — no less than 80,000 tons increase 

 over the 1893 output is recorded. A number of new mines have been 

 opened in the Jumbunna district, and these, it is hoped, will shortly 

 double the supply. Sixty tons of tin were raised in Victoria, and 

 thirty-five tons of antimony during 1894, while of gold the total 

 amount of 673,680 ounces appears in the Registrar's returns for the 

 year. 



Crabs as Geologists. 



From the same Government we have received " Reports on the 

 Victorian Coalfields (No, 3)," by James Stirhng, Assistant-Geological 

 Surve3'or. From this we cull a few items of more scientific interest. 



A valuable ally of the field-geologist is, it appears, to be found in 

 the land-crab. Some time ago Mr. Stirling suggested that the work 

 performed by this diminutive excavator in bringing up pieces of the 

 rock forming the subsoil might help the miner to find coal-seams in 

 South Gippsland, just as the burrowing wombat had disclosed stan- 

 niferous lode-stuff in the Australian Alps. The hint was taken. A 

 young miner detected small pieces of coal around the burrow of a 

 crab, sank a shaft on the spot, and cut the coal-seam four feet below 

 the surface. From similar evidence the officers of the geological 

 survey have traced outcrops in places where the rock was masked by 

 alluvium. 



Gippsland Coal. 



With regard to the origin of coal, Mr. Stirling makes some 

 interesting observations. He is of opinion that the coal-seams of 

 South Gippsland have, in all probability, been formed by the drifting 

 of vegetable matter from a distance, and not as the result of the growth 

 and decay of plants in the localities now occupied by the carbonaceous 

 strata. The manner and formation of the European coal-seams of 

 Upper Carboniferous age has long been a difficult question, and of 

 late years very strong evidence has been brought forward in support 

 of the formation of coal by the gradual deposition of vegetable debris 

 drifted from a longer or shorter distance from the forest-covered areas. 

 It is, therefore, of considerable interest to find that the Gippsland 



